Rewrite
by junelover14
Summary: Merlin has been waiting longer than he ever cares to remember for the day that Arthur will return. He didn't know that he would come back this way. A baby. (Warning: There may be some slash in the way later chapters. It you don't like then don't read. Merlin/Arthur Please note that there will be no child/adult sex in this story.) Rated M for later content and because I'm paranoid.
1. Newborn: Part One

******I own nothing. I boring as all hell. Hope you like my story.**

******Warning: There may be some slash in the way later chapters. It you don't like then don't read.**

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**Rewrite**

New born:

The baby cried with all the power it's little body could muster up. His face went pink with the effort. His cries filled the house and made his mother cry along with him. The boy's soft arms and legs kicked and his body wiggled side to side. His mother nearly losing her hold on her son. The blanket that had covered the six week old child fell to the hardwood floor hours ago. It wasn't the cries of a baby. It was the cries of a human being in pain. As if the child wanted nothing more that to get away from where he was.

The mother's face was crumbled in on itself. The silent sobbing doing nothing to make her son still. Her golden hair was a crow's playpen on top of her head and she looked as if she hadn't changed out of her nightgown in all the time the baby has been alive.

The mother sat down on the couch in her living room and placed her anger baby in the crib next to her. The baby stopped moving around, but his screams never broke off.

"Please!" The woman begged, her hands clinging onto the hands of the man in front of her, "He never stops! He needs to sleep! _**I**_ need to sleep! You are the only one that has ever made he calm. You have to help me!"

The raven haired man's eyes hadn't left the crying infant. He forced a breath of air down his lungs, "I know it's hard, but I'm sure you're not the only mother that this has happened to." He lied.

The women shook her head and used one hand to hold him there and the other to claw at her hair, "He won't _**shut up**_!" She yelled. Her voice weak compared to the sound of her baby.

The women turned and glowered at her flesh and blood. Her body lurched forward as if she was going to attack the still crying newborn. The man tightened his hand around the woman's hand and jumped in front of the wailing baby. He seemed to become bigger than his skinny frame suggested, "You will _**never**_ look at that child in that way ever again! You hear me?!"

The frail woman fell to her knees in front of him, "I need you to help." She looked up at the man's too bright blue eyes with a pleading look on her face, "I don't know what I will do! Yesterday I almost- Please take him!"

The man sank back onto the balls of his feet and let the woman drop to all fours. She sobbed into the wood as he turned his eyes back on the crying child.

The boy seemed to get louder the closer he got to his crib. His watery eyes wide and unseeing with it's fear. "Shhh…" The man breathed as he slowly made is way over.

The baby almost bit the man's arm as he was picking him up. "Don't be such a prat." The blue eyed man chuckled and grinned down at the pick faced child as it's warmth soaked into his chest.

The sky blue eyes off the pink faced baby locked with the man's and the crying died out. Leaving only the faint sound of whippers. The baby curled itself into the man's chest and closed his eyes. The women behind them moaned in pleasure at the quiet. No one talked for a long time. The women basking in the silence and the man clinging to the tiny soul in his arms.

"He's asleep." The man whispered. His voice sounded like it was coated with awe and affection far too great for a man that had not held this baby more than a handful of times in all it's life.

He turned to give the woman back the baby now that it wouldn't start screaming the second she touched it, but the women backed away. Crawled like a rat behind the couch.

"I don't want him." She sobbed as quietly as she could so as not to wake the baby. "He will only bring pain."

An anger far too great for words to describe filled the man to his very core. How dare this weak women give up on her son! She had only been a mother for six weeks and just because the baby cries to much she can't handle it?!

"You can't just throw him away!" Merlin half yelled, half whispered. "You are going to miss out on this wonderful boy. You are going to lose the best thing you have ever accomplished. You will never see him again if you give up now!"

"If you come near me with that demon child I will slit it's throat!" The woman hissed, not leaving her safe heaven behind the couch. The man faintly remembered a sickly creature in a movie sounding just like this deficient mother. Gollum something.

He tightened his hold on the sleeping infant and turned away from the pitiful person. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Without a sound the man and the naked baby left the big stone mansion, grabbing the blanket as he went to cover the baby, and traveled down the mile long drive way to his car.

The baby didn't wake up until the man had tucked the wool blanket around the baby and strapped him into the car seat that had appeared in the back seat of the man's SUV. His newborn eyes glazed over with new tears and his arms started to attack anything the little arms could reach. Before the screams could start again, however, the man grabbed one of the little hands and his eyes glowed gold. Strange words slipped from his lips and the little hand heat up. A little rattle replaced the man's hand and the baby shook his new toy. And for the first time in five weeks since the man hand held him in his arms the little boy smiled and laughed.

"You know…" The man started talking as he strapped himself into the front seat, "I know you."

The man grinned and started the engines, "We met a long time ago. You whined a lot back then too. You were names Arthur Pendragon back then. I think I like that name a little more than Oliver Dow." The man chuckled at the stupid name and glanced at the now happy baby in the back seat. "I'll take care off you, Arthur. I'm going to find you somewhere safe. Somewhere that I can keep an eye on you. Be there for you. Hope you don't see me as a father or something." He snorted, "Now that would be perfect. Arthur, now Oliver, Pendragon calling me daddy." The man shuddered at the thought.

"We were great friends you know." He started again after a while of silence. "Two sides of the same coin. At least that's was some daft dragon told me. I'm Merlin by the way."

Merlin met the infant's eyes in the rearview mirror, grinning at the gigging child that looked back at him, "I would give anything and everything to be that way with you again. I hope with every fiber of magic in my immortal body that day will come."


	2. Newborn: Part Two

**Sorry this on is so short, But I'm sleepy.**

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When Merlin had arrived to his flat in the city Arthur, now Oliver, was already kept waking up to check on him. He was sleeping in his new crib by Merlin's bed. He was waiting for the young child to start crying again. Or to have something be wrong with him now that he's not near his mother, but the newborn slept peacefully on his stomach. His tiny head rested on it's right cheek and little feet twitched every now and again.**  
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Thankfully Merlin had read somewhere in his long life, that newborns shouldn't be wrapped in a blanket when they sleep, because it could choke them. He was worried about him being too cold in his drafty apartment, though, so he cut up one of his tank tops and hemmed him a makeshift nightgown.

He seemed okay, but Merlin kept waking up from his half sleep because of nightmares of the boy somehow getting hurt in the hour he was away from him. Maybe choking himself on the crudely made outfit, getting his adorably large feet stuck in the bars at the top of the crib and breaking his leg, or waking up and screaming in the only way babies can when he saw Merlin's face. Just like he insisted on doing to his mother. His new flesh and blood.

Merlin might have known the pratish prince, and then the clotpole king, but this wasn't him. It was the same soul and face fit into a different man. How should he act around this Arthur? How should he act around Oliver Dow?

As Merlin stared at the pink newborn sleeping in that ugly nightgown made from his own shirt, he realized sadly that he couldn't keep this child. No matter how long he has waited for Arthur to return, he could not keep this baby boy locked up indoors with him where he could never die again. Where he could keep him safe.

Merlin needs to find him a place. A nice home and people to care for him. He would always stay near by for whenever Arthur needed him, but he couldn't fill a innocent's head with stories about a place called Camelot, that no one believes in anymore, and a wizard named Merlin that would have done anything for his mighty king.

If he remembers his last life, than Merlin will fill in the blanks for him. On the off chance that he doesn't ever remember, however, Merlin will let him live in any way he chooses to. Merlin will just take up the part of the guardian angel that hides in the shadows.

"I don't know if I could take waiting to be next to you for another day, let alone years more." Merlin's voice was soft, as to not wake the newborn, and broken. He was much too close to tears for his liking. "I will never leave you, my lord, but I might be a little harder to see than I want to be."

At least this way, there was no chance of Arthur calling him Daddy.


	3. Newborn: Part Three

The next morning found Merlin and Arthur at Babies R US looking for clothes for new baby Oliver. Merlin had wrapped him up with the blanket around the nightgown and set him up in a car seat that he set up on the chair of the cart. The newborn looked to be a mix between sleepy and playful. The blanket bounced where his arms moved inside and his pink face beamed with all it's might.

"Never seen you so happy before." Merlin talked, mostly to himself, as he pushed the cart down the aisle.

They were in the toy aisle. Merlin wanted to cut through here so that they could get to the newborn clothes without every women in the store either giving him the sink eye or looking at him like he was the cutest thing they had ever seen. A couple guys looked at him like he was both insane and stupid to ever want to come here, of all places, on a weekend.

It was snowing outside. Pretty hard too. The snow was at least a foot deep by now. Merlin had to walk like some kind of tall, skinny penguin just to get from his car to the store with Arthur in his arms. His feet kept sinking into the snow.

"I must have lost at least three pounds." Merlin had joked to the baby pressed against his chest. Merlin could have sworn that the child rolled his eyes at him. Call it wishful thinking.

Once they got to the clothes. Merlin went straight for the girl's section. "I really want to put you in a dress. I could take a picture of you and use it against you for the rest of your new life. You will never live it down." Merlin teased the bouncing bundle.

The baby just giggled and jumped up and down a couple of times in response.

"I think your soon to be girlfriends will find it simply adorable." Merlin continued as he pretended to look through the overly frilly pink things in front of him.

"I could go around telling all you little friends that we didn't know you were a boy until you were one. I bet they would think that was a laugh." Merlin winked at the bright eyes newborn and Arthur just cooed and gurgled something back at him.

The sound of a woman's giggle sounded from behind Merlin, causing him to jump and spin around. Knocking down quite a few filly things in the process. The lady standing behind him was short. Much shorter than merlin's own six foot two height. She looked to be about five feet tall at the highest. She had long wavy black hair and dark brown eyes. Her skin was a clean white that a person can only get from spending all their time indoors or in the cold weather. Her lips were thin and had a natural red to them that made them look as if she was wearing lipstick. It looked like she wasn't wearing any makeup at all. Can't say see needed it really. She looked to be around the age of twenty.

She was wearing a simple red blouse with a jean jacket and jeans with a drawn on rose on the pocket. She laughed at the mess he had made and put out her hand for him to shake. Her other hand busy trying to hide her laughter. "Oh, so sorry for scaring you. I couldn't help but overhear you talking. I'm Vivianne Pena, but you can call me Vivi."

Merlin shook her hand and gave her one of his signature boyish grins. This grin has gotten Merlin out of a lot of things over the years. It almost covers up the smartmouth. "Merlin. And this here is Oliver Dow." Merlin replied. "Did you enjoy the show?"

Vivi grinned back and tried to look serious as she answered, "Oh yes, it was most riveting. I would most enjoy an encore."

Merlin laughed and shook his head sadly, "I'm sorry but that is all I've got for today."

"That's a shame. You talk so freely with your son. It was nice." Vivi smiled gently and looked behind Merlin to the newborn staring at her with sleepy eyes.

Merlin snorted and explained, "Oh no, I'm not his father. I'm taking care of him right now. Just looking after him for an old friend of mine."

"Oh." Vivi blinked and her smile seemed to widen as she moved her eyes back to Merlin. Merlin tighten his hold on the handle of his cart, waiting for this pleasant conversion to turn sour. "It's still nice. Where are his parents?"

Merlin clicked his tongue and shrugged, "Unavailable at the moment."

"Oh, well how old is Oliver?" she backtracked trying to keep their conversion alive.

"About six weeks." Merlin answered. He turned back to Arthur and fixed his falling blanket. He started to move towards the boys clothes, suddenly wanting to get a move on. Vivi followed him.

"Oh, that's sweet. Your friend must really trust you to let you take care of a child this young." She commented.

Merlin shrugged and picked up the first small, red footie pajama his hands could touch and tossed them into his cart. The cart was already full with baby food, that really looked like veggie mush in a jar, and enough diapers to last a least a month. At least he hopes it will last that long. He also picked up some of that no tears shampoo he sees in the commercials.

When he was in the middle of deciding if he wanted to buy a silver snow hat or a green one with a pom-pom on the top, Vivi started talking again.

"So…" She bit into her bottom lip and seemed to think for a moment, "Have you ever taken care of a newborn before?"

Merlin rolled his eyes and tossed the green hat into the cart, 'you might as well look like christmas with it so close by', "Nope." He popped the p sound as he answered, moving on to the five pack of red short sleeved bodysuits by the wall.

She seemed puzzled by his answer, "Have you ever taken care of a child before?"

"Twenty or so, that I can remember anyway, why?" Merlin asked as he tossed another set of PJ's in for Arthur. These ones black.

"Oh, that's good." She pressed her hand into her chest and sighed, relieved, "I was worried that your friend had left his baby with someone that has never look after another human being in his life."

Merlin chuckled, "If your talking just humans, I would say I've looked after at least a thousand. Lost count a long time a ago."

Vivi blinked again and tried for a smile, "What are you, then? A doctor, nurse, random freelancing do gooder?"

"I'm going to go with that last one, though I have healed before." Merlin grabbed another pom-pom hat for Arthur and turned for the check out line.

Vivi giggled and placed a hand on his arm, stopping his movement, "If you need any help I would be happy to come by. I'm a nanny of a couple three year olds. I've been taking care of them since they were Oliver's age. I could show you the best things to feed him or the safest ways to bath him."

Merlin smiled in gratitude, "That's very kind of you, but Oliver won't be staying with me for very long."

"How long will you have him?" She asked, raising a perfect eyebrow up at him.

"Oh, maybe a month, maybe two. I'll know when I know, I guess." Merlin shrugged and started for the check out line again.

Vivi sighed and stopped him once more, "Trust me Merlin. Taking care of a newborn can be the most stressful thing in the world. Oliver will need you at every second of every day that you have him. And the less sleep you get, the more stressful it will become. Even parents call in help every once and a while. If not for them, but for the baby too."

'I think I know a thing or two about stress.' Merlin thought sourly. 'It's not as if I can't handle stress.'

She took out a notepad from her purse, scribbled something onto it, and handed it to Merlin. It was her number. "Call me whenever you feel overwhelmed. If I can't come, I'll send one of my friends over." She grabbed onto one of his hands and grinned up at his too blue eyes, "Call me, okay?"

Merlin just force a smile onto his face and nodded, so she would go away. He slipped the note into the back pocket of his jeans and carted the now sleeping Arthur and the goods through the check out line.

It wasn't until Merlin was strapping his seat belt into place when he realized that girl's name ment 'lady of the lake'.


	4. Newborn: Part Four

**This one is a little more M rated. I thought you lovely readers could use dome action. It's a little longer than my last chapters, but I'm sure you'll like the change. **

**Warning: There is blood and fire and no feelings of guilt. **

**Hope you like it! XD**

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It took a week for Merlin's new happiness to snap. It was longer than he had thought it would last. Everyday this week Merlin played himself on repeat. As if he was a living breathing record that had skipped one day and now couldn't play anything but the last few seconds of the song over and over again.

He would wake up with fear running through his veins. Dreams about a past he refused to think about trying to force their way to the forefront of his mind. Merlin was stubborn however and would ignore anything he didn't like to think about. Over the years he had gotten very good at not thinking about the time he had really lived. It only got easier now that Arthur was back. He was always something Merlin could focus all his energy on. That hadn't changed.

Merlin's first thought that he didn't ignore in the morning was 'got to check on Arthur'. So every morning the first thing he did was go over the newborn's crib and make sure his friend was still breathing.

Arthur would either be awake and bouncing all around, wanting to be taken somewhere new, or would still be sleeping. Sometimes as he stood there watching the baby sleep he'd see an older man. Laying in the same way as the infant. On his stomach with his head rested on one side of his face. The sunlight would hit his blonde hair just right and before he yelled his good morning that never failed to wake up his king he would watch the golden shine appear to rise off of Arthur's head and float it's way down his body. Making him glow gold and the blanket that covered him become a brighter shade of red than it was before.

If he didn't know any better, he would think it was his magic giving Arthur a hug hello.

The newborn Arthur was usually awake, however, so in the mornings he would pick up his king and take him into the kitchen to eat. Arthur always made a fuss about having to eat the baby food and really he couldn't blame him for not wanting to eat creamy carrots. So the walls would almost always be covered by the time Merlin got him properly feed. After he had set his magic loose to clean the annoying mess he would dress the child in the first clothes his hand touched.

After that Arthur would get jumpy and try to wiggle his way around the room from his playmat on the floor. Merlin had got him some more rattles, since he seemed to love the sounds they made, but Arthur only ever played with the one Merlin had given that first night.

Merlin felt a little smug that Arthur seem to like him, and the things he makes, more than anything else. It was selfish. It would only cause problems for him later when he found him a home away from Merlin, but for now the thought that finally Arthur liked him best was a wonderful thing to think.

Every day for that week he looked for Arthur's new home. Merlin looked for places online and called adoption agencies, but he could never find a place where they would let him keep in touch with Arthur after he was adopted. So Merlin had started to use his magic to listen in on calls where parents, or people that wanted to be parents, talked to the agencies. He would sit there, watching Arthur roll over a few feet to the right then back to the left, and listen for hours. The conversions were dull and predictable. He had started to mouth the words as the people said them. Already knowing what they were going to say.

"When would you like to set up a home study?" They would ask the couple.

"Are those really needed?" The couple would answer all worried and nervous.

"Of course, the social worker will be needed to decide if you are capable of raising a child." They would tell them. Merlin could feel the indifference in most of the people these couples talked to seep through the phone lines.

After that they would go on to talk about what the social worker would ask. Boring things like birth certificates, marriage licenses, and personal references needed to get their 'oh so wanted' child.

Merlin was all for adoption. Loved that the children of the world that were left by themselves will have some kind of chance at a normal life. But after listening to the same conversation over and over again. It stopped sounding like they were talking about human beings and started sounding like they were talking about furniture.

"What kind of child would want. What age?" They would ask the couple.

"Oh, a baby would be wonderful. Maybe a child that looked like us, so they won't be picked on at school for being adopted." They would say.

Or they would say, "As long as it's a baby girl we won't care. We just really want a baby girl."

Merlin wasn't a cynical person. He liked people most of the time. But sometimes he felt as if that happy accepting part of him died with Arthur. He could so very easily hate everyone of the people around him.

After a long day of sitting and silently judging the people on the phone, he would call it a night and change Arthur out of the clothes he had put on him and into something he had bought for sleep. Arthur was clingy during this time of night. He would grabbed onto Merlin's finger and hold on as tight as he could as Merlin laid him down into his crib.

Merlin would have to sit up with him and talk for hours before Arthur could finally feel safe enough to fall asleep. Merlin didn't really talk about anything important. Just things from his past that popped up in his head.

Things like who he had to fight during the war for American rights. Or how he crashed the first car that was ever made after he made it in a factory with the other workers. How everyone in a dinner would look at him like he was some kind of hobo when he walked in after he made himself look old. Told him about the first time someone outside of the age of Camelot saw his magic.

Arthur would stare at him like he was everything and not even there all at one time. He was everything the baby cared about, but the newborn didn't understand what he was saying so he usually just looked through him rather than at him.

It wasn't until a week had crawled by that a bad day hit Merlin square in the face and woke him up again.

Arthur woke him up that day. Screaming just like that day a couple of weeks ago when his mother was holding him. Merlin's eyes snapped open and he all by flew out of his single bed and to the sound of Arthur's cries.

He wasn't in his crib. For a split second Merlin thought he had imaged everything that had happened. Imaged that Arthur was back and that he was a newborn child that needed him and couldn't fight for himself.

The sound of more crying remind him that he didn't have that good of an imagination. His eyes glowed gold and the sight from the living room outside his door came before his eyes. There was three men in his house. One was holding Arthur and the other's were looking for anything of value to shove into their black bags. The man holding Arthur was tall. Scrawny really, and looked like a farret. Like he was the type to only care about money and nothing else.

Merlin had met a lot of those over the years.

They were wearing all black clothing, but it appeared that they didn't care for masks. Merlin took a second to memorize their faces. The scrawny ferret had straight black hair and a big nose. The other two were big, probably the people that would handle a fight. One had a buzz cut and some kind of a scar running across his cheek next to his lips. The other was black and sported dreadlocks that he had tied up with a rubber band.

The ferret looked to be trying to shut Arthur up. He muttered to himself and cursed at Arthur before giving up and covering the infant's mouth with his gloved hand. Arthur wiggled but he was so tiny and helpless that really there was nothing he could do.

Merlin felt his blood boil when he realized that Arthur could no longer breath.

The door to the bedroom smashed against the walls and Merlin walked through. His eyes stayed gold and only seemed to glow brighter when all three of the men look back at him.

He glared at the man holding Arthur, "You either put him down right now or I make you." Merlin told the man calmly.

The big guys laughed and shared a look between the two. As one looked me up and down and smirked, the other dropped his bag that contained his laptop and cell phone and stepped towards Merlin.

"Don't be stupid, broom stick. Don't try to be a hero." The black guy sneered at Merlin. The other laughed and took another step forward.

Merlin's eyes never strayed from Arthur's weakening form. "Put him down or you will regret ever coming into my house."

"Like you could do anything about us, stick wad." The ferret man laughed and ordered the man walking towards me to 'take care of me'.

He turned away from me and I saw red. Red and silver and gold. Arthur couldn't breath. That's all that mattered right now.

Merlin sighed and stated words that the men couldn't understand. The ferret man's leg caught on fire with a blue flame that could not be put out. He screamed and practically tossed the baby into the air so that he could try to deal with the fire. Merlin lunged forward and caught the wayward child before he could hit the floor. Arthur's little body shook with the effort to breath while he cried and coughed. His little face had turned almost blue from lack of air.

The fire was spreading up the man's leg and through his pants to his flesh now. His screams were silenced by another strange word that left Merlin's lips. The other toy men were caught between running away and standing in shock at what they were seeing. The man one fire look as if he was melting in a bloody and solid way.

Merlin stood up slowly and stared at the two big men coldly. "I wonder when someone will listen when I give an order." Merlin said, mostly sarcasm for himself. He wasn't going to stop the fire. He would have to leave the flat soon.

One of the big men put together that Merlin was the one that started the fire and he growled as he went for Merlin's throat. Merlin simply glanced at the knifes he had on the kitchen counter and they flew at the man with the buzz cut and scar. The biggest knife stabbed through his throat. Coming out the other side with so much easy it might as well have been better. The others stabbed in various places around his heart.

Merlin had to twist his body around so Arthur didn't get covered in the blood. He could feel the hot liquid running down his neck and under his night shirt. Could still feel the slight bubble of life on his skin. the black man had the sense to run away from Merlin. Merlin didn't care for him. He let him go.

He had to hurry to get all of the stuff that he needed into his car so that the blue flame didn't get Arthur and him as well. The fire would go out once the flat was unrecognizable by the human eye, but just in cause it didn't go off soon enough Merlin pulled the fire alarm so the whole building would have to get out. He had already changed and cleaned off his hair. He had another flat on the other side of the city. It was in a nicer part of town so he probably wouldn't have to worry about this happening again.


	5. Newborn: Part Five

**Here is the aftermath of the last chapter. Poor Merlin. :(**

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It took two hours to get everything from his car into their places somewhere in his uptown flat. This flat already had all the trimmings. Furniture, blankets on the bed, and all the pots and pans a immortal man could ever want. Arthur was still whimpering, but he had calmed down from the screeching cries of pain, so Merlin called it a plus.

Merlin, however, hadn't calmed down yet. It was getting worse. The panic that he didn't allow take over when the danger was in front of him was now filling his every thought. Merlin dragged out setting up his new apartment and changing Arthur's diaper and cleaning off his dirty cheeks.

He tried to focus on the reddened eyes on Arthur's face. The grip with little hands over his long fingers. On the warmth of the infant's body hugging his panic stabbed at him though. Shook his hands and spun him around until he couldn't understand left from right. Up from down.

Panic at what could have happened choked him. Made his body feel like wood that was wetted down and pulled into to many different directions. It threatened to split him in two. He was torn between breaking down in a corner and crying until it left him, or screamings until his throat burned and his tongue bleed. After the third hour, there was no longer an option of being calmed down. He had to get this out of him. It was burning at his magic like poison. Peeling at his skin from the inside, trying to get out.

So he did the only thing that he could think to do. The only thing he could do that wouldn't upset Arthur all over again. At least not right away.

He called 'the lady of the lake'.

Her voice was sleepy when she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

Merlin had to swallow back the darkness before he could even think to open his mouth. "It's Merlin. I know it's late, but I need to get away right now and-"

"Shhh…" Vivi muttered, sounding only slightly more awake than before, "Merlin you're going to have to slow down. I can't understand you."

Merlin clenched and unclenched the hand holding the phone. "Some people died and I need to get away for a bit. Just a couple hours, but Oliver need's someone to take care of him." He explained. Slower this time. With the most practiced and robotic voice he could twist the sounds coming out of his mouth to make. He was only slightly aware of the sound of something breaking with a crash of glass coming from behind him.

"What?!" She cried, sounding very awake now, "Oh my God! who died?! Are you okay?"

"Please could you come and take care of him while I burn off some steam." Merlin felt the need to fall to his knees and beg for her to shut up and take Arthur from him before the screams could rip their way up his throat.

"Oh!" Merlin heard the faint sound of a body hitting the floor on the other side of the phone. "Yes! Yes, of course I will. Just tell me where you are."

Merlin some how told him the way to his house and ended the call. Or she ended the call. He didn't really care to know who did what. He could feel the seams that held his parts all together bending, but he held it in. Arthur only needs him for twenty more minutes. Than he can let go of his reason.

So Merlin just tightened his hold on Arthur's tiny body and slid to the floor next to his front door. He pulled his knees in and rested Arthur so that his head was against Merlin's neck and his butt was balanced on his upper thighs. He wrapped his arms around both Arthur and his knees and tried to simply breath in the scent of the innocent creature in his arms. It took work but he cleared his mind and pressed his nose into the skin of the infant's body.

It took fifteen minutes for Vivianne to knock on the door to his flat. He forced his strung out body to get up slowly. He kept Arthur's head rested by his neck as he opened the door. His tiny hands wiggled around, but he seemed happy to stay where he was.

Vivi was still in her pajamas. They were furry and purple. A tank top and pants with pink hearts on them. He hair was put up in a messy bun and she was wearing tennis shoes with velcro straps.

"Thank you for coming." Merlin motioned for her to come in. His movements felt tight and uncompromising.

She walked in slowly, looking Merlin up and down, as if he was a trapped animal. As if one wrong move from her and he would attack. Baby in his arms and all. He almost smiled at that.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she placed a hand on the shoulder Arthur wasn't rested on. Merlin's sure she meant it to be comforting, but every second in this tiny flat was like being trapped under water. He couldn't breathe.

Instead of answering her, Merlin handed Arthur over to her. Arthur's body tensed as if he was getting ready to start screaming again.

"He might start crying as soon as I leave." Merlin explained to her as he gently rubbed Arthur's back. Slowly, ever so slowly, he backed away from the needy baby.

"All children cry when they're caretaker leaves them. It's normal." Vivi nodded in understanding, but Merlin shook his head at her.

"He cries whenever I'm not there." He clenched his jaw and tried to think of something other that the face of a man screaming without sound. "It's why my friend wanted me to take care of him for a while. He never stopped crying." He tried to explain without telling her the full truth.

It worked. Vivi looked half shocked and half disbelieving, but she nodded at Merlin and shifted her hold on the infant. "So you want me to just deal with it while you're gone." She asked him.

"Please." Merlin found himself begging, "I need to _**breath**_."

Her eyes widened, but she nodded again, "Of course. Do what you need to do. I can handle it."

His jaw clenched and without a goodbye, or one last look at Arthur, he turned towards the door to leave. Before he could leave and find a place to start breathing again, she stated in a firm voice, "We will need to talk when you get back, Merlin."

He ignored her and closed the door as quietly as he could before breaking into a run down the hallway to the stairs leading to his car.

His heart broke that last little bit when Arthur's wailing hit him in the back as he ran. The sound just made him run faster. He couldn't handle anymore of this. Not right now. Not with the image of silent screams and men with butcher knives embedded in their windpipe ripping at his heart.

Merlin cleared his mind as he started the car. Going faster than humans thought cars could travel. He drove until the sight of houses were no longer in view. Until only trees were around him and the road started to shift from cement and yellow lines to dirt trails and rocks.

As soon as there was not a single person left to hear him, he parked his car and jumped out. The words he screamed weren't something anyone would understand. His magic streamed out of him like a river. It bent the trees around him and shook the ground below him. The band around his lungs snapped and he sucked in a breath like he might die otherwise.

He didn't care that he was crying, because there was no one around that could see him. Why is it that every time he protects Arthur he must kill people. He isn't this type of man.

He doesn't care about the men he killed and it's that fact that is making him break down.

He hates what Arthur makes him into. No matter how happy he might be that Arthur is back Merlin doesn't think he can do this again. He is immortal. He has to live with what he does. He wants to forget.

The only thing that silenced his rant inside his head was the image of Arthur. It was the first time they had met. The prat was using a poor servant as a moving target. Him and his friends laughing all over themselves. It had man Merlin's blood boil.

Maybe he should use this moment as a chance to distance himself from him. To finally be something that didn't involve Arthur. To cut that part of himself off and finally be free.

Just when was about to jump in his car and drive until he was as far from Arthur as he could get the image of their second encounter came to mind. Arthur had told the guards to back off. Called him a brave idiot. Arthur had told him that here was something about him that he couldn't quite figure out.

The magic that was destroying the land around him started to fade back into him. It ultimately stopped when the last thing that Arthur said to him wrote itself across his eyes once more. _I don't want you to change. I want you to always be you. _Merlin sucked in a breath and screamed out his frustration without opening his mouth. Thank you. He had told him. Thank you. The first time Arthur had ever thanked him and it had to be the day he died.

Now whenever he hears those words he cringes a little. Its like the words alone poke at his wounded soul.

It is impossible to cut off the other half of one's self. Merlin knows that. More than anyone ever could. Arthur can get him to do anything for him even from the grave. Even from the body of a newborn.

Merlin will do as he planned for Arthur. He won't, _**can't**_, leave his side. His body doesn't work right with thinking of Arthur.

"Time to go back and sooth Arthur's tears." Merlin told himself as he whipped the last of his pain from his pale face.


	6. Newborn: Part Six

**Yay smut. Yes that's right a little of that in this chapter. And no not with Arthur you creepos. It's the first time I've written something like this, so comments on how it is would be great. This will be the last newborn chapter. We're finally moving up! Hope you like it! XD**

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Merlin took the long way back to Arthur. He wanted there to be no trace of the pain he was just in. When he finally got back to the crying child, it had been four hours since he left. He could hear through the door that Arthur was still crying.

It made him flinch to know he had made him do that. He took one last deep breath and shrugged the last of the stress from his shoulders. No more running. Arthur is going to be his first priority. Just like old times.

He walked into the flat and looked around for Vivi and Arthur. They weren't far. Vivi had set Arthur in his his new crib by the couch. Merlin hadn't moved it to his bedroom yet.

The look on Vivianne's face was hard to look at. It reminded him too much of what his 'lady of the lake' looked like when she still alive. It was just his luck that he would make friends with the recreation of his first love.

Merlin force a grin on his face, he's sure it came out slightly cracked, and rolled his eyes. "Who would have thought you of all people would be the neediest of all babies that have ever lived." He teased the newborn.

Vivi jumped from her spot on the couch and the look of pain shifted to pure relief. She studied him as he walked towards the crib. Confused by the smile and easy walk, no doubt. He just grinned wider and shook his head as he picked up Arthur. She watched in awe as Arthur simply stopped crying as soon as Merlin touched him.

"You really need to learn how to be away from me." Merlin kissed Arthurs soft head and his smile turned real, "I know I'm pretty amazing, but god this is a little too much. Even for me."

"I tried everything I could think of and it did nothing." Vivi told him. Still in awe of him, "Then you just walk in and it's like he never had been crying."

Merlin rolled his eyes and shook his pointer finger in front of Arthur's face, "That's because he is one of the most needy, stubborn people I have ever met. Isn't that right, My lord?" Arthur just gurgled something and grabbed his finger, making Merlin chuckle, "I thought so."

"What is wrong with you?" Vivi suddenly yelled. Her arms flailed around her as if she wanted to hit something. "One minute you look like you're going to fall to pieces and then the next you acted like nothing bad has ever happened to you!"

That caused Merlin to chuckle with a dark undertone. He looked in the eyes and waited for her breathing to slow back down before he answered her, "Lets just say that I've had a lot of practice it dealing with things people wouldn't want to happen to them."

Vivi's eyes widened at his serious tone, "How can you possibly have so much practice? You can't be a day over twenty."

"I'm older than I look." Merlin shifted Arthur in his arms. The child gurgled something again and pulled Merlin's finger into his mouth.

Vivi sighed in frustration and her hands waved up into the air again, "You are so cryptic!"

"That's just another part of my charm." Merlin told her cheekily. The look on his face made her let out a rueful smile. Before she could say anything else, he asked, "Would you like something to eat? Anything you want. As thanks for taking care of Arthur for me." Merlin rested Arthur back into the crib and took his finger back. This time instead of crying, Arthur just closed his eyes to go to sleep.

She bit her lip and thought about it. "Strawberries." She decided.

Merlin was suddenly glad that he had put Arthur down, because he was sure he would have dropped him. He looked at the clean face of Vivianne in shock and another face appeared next her. This face the same but different. Same eyes, but with agony filling them. Same mouth, but with a cut on the side of her bottom lip. Same hair, but loose and knotted from lack of care.

_What do you want with it, ham? Cheese? Anything you want!_

_Strawberries._

_Strawberries it is._

_That's not a strawberry._

_It's the right color._

_You're not scared of me?_

_Being different is nothing to be scared of._

_You made me feel loved. _

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Vivianne snapped Merlin out of his memories of the girl that once was.

Suddenly he couldn't help but grin. "I'm sorry you just remind me of a very close friend of mine."

"Oh?" Vivi raised an eyebrow in question, "How's that?"

"She loved strawberries as well." Merlin shrugged and went into the kitchen to get her what she had asked for.

"What's her name?" She asked, following him into the kitchen.

"Her name was Freya," Merlin told her pointedly, but before Vivi could mutter an apology for not understanding that his friend was dead, he continued. "but I know her as 'the lady of the lake'."

Vivi blinked and tilted her head to the right, "That's what my name means."

Merlin nodded, "I know."

Vivi laughed and asked, "Why did you call her that?"

Merlin thought about his answer for a minute before telling her, "She had grown up at a lakeside."

Vivi nodded, "What was she like?"

Merlin's grin softened, making Vivianne lean forward with interest, "She was a scared girl. She hadn't had a very good life. She was sweet though. Remind me of myself sometimes. I loved her."

Vivi smiled back at him, "She sounds nice."

"You look just like her." Merlin continued, "Makes one wonder if you aren't her reincarnation."

Vivi laughed at that, "I might be. That could be why I like you so much."

"Oh, really?" Merlin teased her and leaned forward as well. The strawberries forgotten in his hand. "You like me, huh?"

"Hmm," She hummed and bit her bottom lip, "A little."

"Strange, because I could have sworn that your exact words were 'That could be why I like you so much.' That doesn't sound like a little to me." Merlin smiled and leaned in a little closer.

She giggled and leaned in the rest of the way. Her lips felt like silk. It's been a while since Merlin kissed a girl. He pulled her closer to him with the hands that he put on her waist. Her body molded with his and her arms wrapped around his neck. Merlin couldn't help but moan when she grinded herself into him. He could feel all the blood rushing down his body.

They parted and she muttered, "What is it about you that makes me want to kiss you?"

Merlin let out a breathy chuckle, "My dashing good looks and witty charm, maybe?"

She laughed with him and kissed him again, "I can't believe I'm kissing you."

"Me neither." Merlin bit her bottom lip and sucked on it. Making Vivianne moan and press closer to him.

"We only just met and you were a wreck only a few hours ago." She continued between kisses.

"If it makes you feel any better, we could go out first?" Merlin told her.

She shook her head. "I need you now. It's like my whole body is begging for me to give myself to you before it's too late."

"Too late for what?" Merlin asked even though he knew the answer.

"Before you leave and never come back again." Vivianne answered. Her voice sounded shaky, like she was trying not to cry. "It doesn't make any sense. I barely know you." She whimpered.

"Shhh." Merlin stroked her hair. "I understand how you feel. It's okay."

Vivianne pulled back and looked deep into his too blue eyes. "Your different, Merlin. Bigger than you are. If that makes any sense at all."

Merlin's eyes softened and gave her a small smile, "You are very observant, Vivianne."

She shivered at the sound of her name on his lips, "I'm not going to be able to forget you, am I?"

"I can't forget you either." Merlin grinned, "And I wouldn't want to."

They rushed into another kiss. Going deeper this time. Their tongues glided across each other. No fighting for dominance, just feeling each other. Merlin had forgotten how good it was to kiss someone you love. Even if that love was buried under a deeper feeling now, he could still feel the sweetness of the love he felt for the first 'lady of the lake'.

Without having to think about it, Merlin guided her to his bedroom behind him. The door opened without them having to reach for it, but Merlin doesn't think Vivianne noticed it.

He twisted her around so her knees would hit the edge of the bed. Gently he guided her down to the bed and pulled back. He pulled her messy hair out of the bun and framed it around her face. "Beautiful." He murmured into her ear.

She shivered again and reached for the bottom of his t-shirt. Lifting it up so she could feel the skin underneath. She hummed when she felt the muscle on his stomach. He is stronger than his clothes made him out to be. He pulled back again and helped her lift his shirt the rest of the way off.

She scooted back on the bed and moved her arms up. Waiting for him to come up to her. He grinned and her and she almost broke at the sweetness flowing from his eyes.

Clothes came off and they pressed their naked skin together. They just wanted to feel each other's heat against their own.

"God." Merlin moaned when his hardness pressed against her wet folds. "Feels so good."

Vivianne hummed in agreement and lifted her waist up to meet his. Making them both groan at the friction.

"Condom?" She asked breathlessly.

Merlin nodded and reached for the drawer next to his bed. His eyes glowed gold and the condom appeared inside the once empty drawer. Once he had the condom slipped on, he returned to her side. Pressing once more into her.

"Now Merlin, please." She whimpered and ground herself against him. Her head bent back and Merlin kissed the skin she showed off to him.

One of his hands moved in between them and slipped between her wet folds. He found her clit quickly and pinched it between his fingers. She cried out and grabbed his shoulders to steady herself. He slid his fingers down that nerve cluster, sliding his finger inside of her with a one flooded motion.

She clenched around his finger before relaxing and he added another finger. When he could move both freely in and out of her, he pulled his hand back. She whined and clenched harder onto his shoulders. Her nails digging into him.

"Merlin!" She whimpered when he stared at her face for a little too long, "Hurry up."

He chuckled and said, "Anything for you." as he skated himself into her just as quickly as he did his finger.

They set a comfortable rhythm. In, out, in, out. Every movement filled with a love forgotten and a pure feeling of connection. It wasn't long before they were falling over the edge. Vivianne clenching around him. Making him see stars.

They were left panting next to each other over the covers. Both bodies sweaty and tired.

"We've met before. Haven't we, Merlin?" Vivi asked him when her breathing was finally under control.

Merlin clenched his eyes closed and replied, "In a way, yes."

"I remember some of it. I think." She told him.

Merlin smiled, "I'm glad. It would have made me sad if I was the only one this meant something to."

"I used to be Freya, right."

"Yes." He sighed.

"'The lady of the lake'. I used to be her. A long time ago." She twisted until she she had her head rested on top of Merlin's chest. "I'm sorry, Merlin."

"For what?" he asked, as he ran his hand up and down her naked spine.

"For leaving you." She explained softly.

"I was never mad at you. You were my first love." Merlin responded.

"_You made me feel loved_." Vivianne chanted, "You really do. Even now when I'm not that hurt girl any more."

"How much do you remember?" Merlin started to write letters of the old religion on her back.

"Some of when I was with you and some of when I was trapped, but that's all." She rubbed her nose into the skin of his chest. "I'll miss you, Merlin."

Merlin felt a single tear slide from her eyes and onto his chest, right where his heart is, making his own eyes water. "I could never forget you, Freya. My 'lady of the lake'."

Vivianne left soon after that. Merlin got dressed and felt that part of his heart that was her's rest back underneath that deeper feeling. It's hard to feel sad about a love that was lost years ago.

He walked back into the living room to look down at the still sleeping Arthur. He looked peaceful. It make Merlin's resolve to focus on him again lock into place.

"You'll be alright." Merlin told the infant, "How can you not be when you have me on your side?"


	7. Ten: Part One

**Thank you to everyone that is reading this. I think I might love all of you. XD Hope you like this chapter. I'm moving away from baby Arthur so some of this is in Oliver's point of view. If it's hard to understand please tell me! Enjoy!**

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Ten:

"Oliver!"

The sound of his name forced Oliver's eyes open. Above him stood a man around forty years of age. He was a tall man with red hair that he kept brushed back with hair gel. His eyes were a startling green color. He looked nothing like Oliver. Oliver's face was rounded out with youth. His eyes were a gray blue and his hair was bright goldened shade that he let grow out. It got into his eyes a lot.

"It's time to get up for school." The man informed him.

His name is Rey Knight. He's Oliver's father. Rey used to have a wife, but she ran off when Oliver was too young to know her.

Oliver huffed and rolled onto his stomach, pulling the covers up and over his head as he went. He was too sleepy to get up right now.

"Oliver! Merlin's waiting for you in the car!" Rey poked at Oliver's covered head and Oliver whined.

The mention of Merlin's name made Oliver wake the rest of the way up. his face burned red and he fought down the urge to jump up right away to go and see him.

"I don't want to go to school today!" Oliver clenched onto the covers with as much power as his ten year old hands could inforce.

'I can't see Merlin!' Oliver panicked to himself. 'He'll laugh at me again.'

Oliver hated that he was so close to tears. His lips started to tremble a little and his eyes glazed over with unwanted wetness. 'God, I'm such a baby!' He yelled inwardly.

"Oliver get the hell up! You're going to make Merlin late for work." Rey tried to pull the blanket, but Oliver just barely kept it over his head.

Oliver heard his father sigh, a full bodied burst of air, and left the room. Oliver waited for the door to his bedroom to close before he jumped out from under the heat of his blanket. He ran towards the windows and pulled his curtains back so he could see the street below.

Merlin was leaning against the passenger side door of his SUV as he waited for Arthur to come down to meet him. It's been ten years. Longer than Merlin has ever known Arthur in his past life.

Unfortunately, bad days came in spades as the years went by. Merlin expected it, really. Out of all the houses for someone to try to steal from, it just happened to be the one Merlin owned in the wrong side of town? Out of all the thieves to steal from Merlin, it had to be the ones that would also willing to go for the baby in the building?

It was too much of a coincidence for it to be true. Merlin could feel the wrongness of it, but at the time he had just thought it was his fear for Arthurs lack of breath. When Arthur was sixteen months old, right after Merlin found a family that would let him have regular contact with Arthur after adoption, a tree too large to fall on it's own started to descend on top of Merlin's car as he was driving to the new family.

It had only landed in front of Merlin's SUV, because Merlin saw it as it started to fall. He had to slam the brakes just to keep them from getting into a headlong collision. He kicked his breaks with his magic and the rear wheel lifted into the air as the car tried to screech to a car barely made it and Arthur just started laughing in his spot in the back seat. Unaware of their brush with death.

"You are just as a oblivious as before." Merlin have smiled a the laughing baby, but he could feel it now.

The wrongness choked at him and made his vision swairl together in a mash of color and shapes.

It wasn't until he was stopping an oncoming bus that had had it's breaks broken beyond repair on Arthurs fourth birthday did he understand the wrongness was a person that couldn't bring herself back. A person who in the age of Camelot had turned wrong in her live and Merlin himself had killed.

Morgana.

She wasn't back though. Not like Freya come back. No, Merlin would have felt that. It's just her magic that's doing this. It's just her magic that is trying to kill Arthur and Merlin.

Merlin snapped out of his dark thoughts as the familiar burn of Arthur's gaze appeared from his bedroom window.

Oliver jumped and ducked below his windowsill as Merlin's too blue eyes snapped up to meet his. His breath came quickly as he tried to slow his heart beat. Slowly, Oliver peaked over the windowsill.

Merlin was waiting for him. As soon as Arthur looked over sill Merlin rewarded him with one of his ear to ear grins. He looked smug as the smile morphed into a smirk and he gave Oliver a cocky salute.

Oliver blushed and glared at Merlin. Before he could do anything back, however, Ray exited his house and walked up to Merlin. Oliver held his breath as he saw Merlin laugh while his father pointed up to where Oliver was right now.

Merlin nodded to whatever Ray had told him and started for the front door to his house. Oliver let out a scared gasp and jumped under his bed. He rolled his body into a tight ball in the hopes that Merlin might not see him.

Oliver's hopes were brutally murdered though, when Merlin simply opened the bedroom door and sat down next to the bed. Right next to where Oliver had hid.

"So…"Merlin began, leaning his back against the side of the bed. Cutting off one of Oliver's escape routes. "Your still mad at me, huh?"

Merlin grinned when Arthur didn't answer his question and continued on smugly, "You have to admit it was funny."

Arthur gave out an embarrassed cry of shock and called out a rude, "Shut up" before trying to crawl down to the foot of the bed so he could possibly run from this conversation and the annoying young man he was having it with.

Merlin just rolled his eyes and whispered and quick word that moved a chest of Arthurs toys to the foot of the bed. Another word made the box too heavy for the young and tiny Arthur to push it out of the way.

Oliver bagged on the wooden chest and whine under his breath. Merlin is always faster than him. When he gets bigger he's going to make sure he beats him.

"Merlin!" Oliver yelled, sounding more whiny that angry, "Let me out!"

Merlin ignored him a studied the boy now named Oliver's bedroom. Merlin didn't come in here too often. He maybe spent a total of two hours in this room in all the time Arthur has lived here.

It was a odd room. Not a room Merlin ever saw Arthur having. It was filled with toys. Video games. Computer and Tv. Basically anything that a young boy could ever need to entertain himself in the twenty first century. Any young boy that never goes out side, maybe.

It seemed wrong, somehow, that the great knight and king Arthur Pendragon would be one of the children tat liked to stay indoors. Though I guess Arthur, or Oliver, doesn't really use any of this stuff much. Ray gave it to him mostly. Merlin thinks he gave him so much because he had to work a lot of the time. In a lot of ways, Ray Knight was a lot like Uther.

Ray was kinder in way, but if Merlin had to bet money on wether Ray would like him after he found out about the magic or not, he would pick the later every time. Ray didn't seem very excepting about things he didn't understand. Merlin didn't know why he picked someone so much like Uther to raise Arthur. Merlin guess that he secretly hopes the similarities would spark that perfect spot in Oliver's head and Arthur would be back again.

Other than the mindless toys, the room looked like any other ten year olds bedroom. The walls were red and the lining was silver, but other than the colors the room didn't really scream Arthur. Oliver's bedroom had a small single bed and a window on the wall directly across from it. The sheets on the bed were superman printing and the curtains for the windows were spiderman.

Bored of the room and Arthur's continued whines from underneath the bed, Merlin started to talk.

"Really, I can't see how you don't find it funny." He began, making Oliver groan and curled further into his twisted ball shaped position. "If it were me that had fallen right smack dab onto my face during a school soccer team, you would have been rolling in the dirt laughing your ass off. Don't tell me the great Oliver Knight is too cool to laugh at himself." Merlin mocked him.

"I'm not too cool for anything!" Oliver protested, "It just wasn't that funny and I don't like that you didn't even stop your stupid giggling even when we had gotten all the way back home."

Merlin laughed again just remembering Oliver's fall. Merlin didn't even have time to be worried about him, before Arthur jumped up, blushed so red that Merlin was surprised he didn't just keel over and die from heat stroke, and book it to the nearest restroom as fact as he little legs as he could go. Oliver had been playing with some of the boys from his class after school as he waited for Merlin to come and pick him up. Merlin arrived just as Oliver was running down the field. He had the ball and he, like Arthur, was very good at sports of any kind. One of his friends, however, didn't share his natural talent for the game. His friend that MErlin could only assume was on the other time ran neck and neck with Oliver down the field. Even Merlin, a horrible sports player of any time period, could tell that the boy was too close for comfort.

All it took was one wrong step from the kid and Oliver got caught in his wake. The kids foot snagged on Oliver's shorts and as the kid fell backwards, Oliver fell forwards. The kid's shoes pulled Oliver's shorts down to his ankles at the exact moment that Oliver smacked his face into the unforgiving ground.

If that weren't bad enough Oliver, who had been holding his blander the whole game, wet himself on the way into the dirt.

The poor boy couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Merlin knew he shouldn't have laughed, but come on. All that happened was Oliver getting knocked down a peg or two. The kid was already turning into that man that picked on the servants. It might do him some good to get humble at a younger age. So Merlin let himself laugh.

Now, though, it seemed mean and maybe Merlin should have been kinder to Oliver. He was only ten and damned if Arthur didn't always make Merlin want to spoil him.

Merlin sighed and scratched at the back of his neck, "Sorry I laughed at you. Even though you have done the exact same thing in my shoes, I'm going to take the high road and tell you that it was wrong. I shouldn't have done that. Will you please forgive, so that I can get you sorry ass to school?"

Olive bit his lip and uncurled himself the best he could from where he was. Using his arms to pulled himself out in the space beside Merlin, Oliver peeked out at the young man in front of him with narrowed eyes. The look was so much like Arthur's, that MErlin almost lost all of his breath. Thankfully he was able to smile and say, "There he is! Why does you come out and get dressed so we can get you to school?"

Oliver Frowned at the baby tone Merlin Was using on him and shook his head, "They'll all laugh at me. I'm not going."

Merlin smirked and snapped his fingers to get Oliver's eyes back on him, "If anyone laughs at you just pull their pants down. Than they'll know what it feels like."

Oliver's eyes widened with his grin and he jumped up from his hiding spot. His whole body seemed to vibrate with giddy mischief.

"Does that mean I can do that to you as well?" Oliver asked the man with the too blue eyes. Oliver bounced on the balls of his feet. As if he just couldn't hold in all the energy inside and he needed a way to let it go.

"If you don't I will get you into fencing like you asked me too." Merlin smiled gently and got to his feet.

Oliver's grin seemed to get even wider. If that was even possible.


	8. Ten: Part Two

**So sorry for the long wait! I really could not think of anything to write. I'm also really lazy. XD This one is a little short, but I hope you like it anyway!**

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Surprisingly, another bad day didn't happen for another month. The longest amount of time between bad days to have happened since Arthur was still easy to kill newborn. As if the dark magic, that Merlin can feel is the cause of all of his panic ridden insanity, was getting more and more desperate to get rid of the once and future king before it was too late.

It sort of makes one smile. The fact that even died Morgana fears Arthur and him.

Anyway, like most bad days, the day started out rather peaceful. Merlin had jumped Oliver off at his school. He's little school buddies surrounded him as if Arthur was still the king. Wouldn't that make Arthur happy? To know that, even when he isn't royalty, people still liked him.

Merlin didn't usually leave the car when he dropped Oliver off. He just drops him off, makes sure he gets safely into the school that Merlin already set protective spells all over, and then drives off to his job.

Merlin works at a diner near his flat. About half an hour from Arthur's new home.

This time, however, something caught his eye. It was a teacher. Merlin has seen a lot in his long years of life. He found that there is something similar on a person's face when they are about to do something. A light in a man's eye when he's about to ask the love his life to marry him. The bored body language of a person as they go through a date with something they care very little for. The charged muscles of a person about to book it the opposite direction from that annoying date.

So when Merlin looked at this man, his blood ran cold.

There wasn't anything special about the man. He looked around the age of thirty. Maybe forty. He was wearing a white button up dress shirt. No tie and fancy slacks. He had graying, of maybe just blonde, hair and thin rimmed glasses. He looked like any other teacher, really.

Usually, Merlin wouldn't look twice at the man, but something was off about him. After living through what would have killed most others, Merlin learned to trust his feelings above all other thoughts.

His eyes were set in front of him as he walked. It was kind of a mix between a man that was determined to get somewhere and a man that doesn't want to go anywhere ever again. His coat was resting over his right arm and he had a briefcase in his other.

Merlin got out of his car and leaned against the cold metal to get a closer look at the man. Before he could figure out what was off, however, the bell signaling the start of the school day rang through the air.

Merlin's eyes snapped to where Arthur and his friends were running to the front doors. Arthur was taunting someone with a baseball cap. Judging by the angry swipe from one of the smaller boys, Merlin guessed it was his hat. Arthur waved the battered cap above his head like a flag and his friends laughed as the poor boy jumped for it.

The boy's face was turning colors and he seemed to be screaming something at Arthur. Just as the image of an older blonde man with a self satisfied smirk was forming itself up across Merlin's mind, the boy charged with a battle cry. He shoved Arthur backwards. Right into the teacher.

That's when Merlin saw the look on the man's face. The teacher looked down at Oliver and his lips curled into a snarl. It only lasted a second, and it was gone before any of the kids could see it, but Merlin did see it. It was as if the whole man's body was ready to smack the happy children in his way. The teacher forced himself to relax and he smiled at the boys and patted Oliver's head as he gently moved him out of the way to get past.

Merlin's eyes widen and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

That snarl only met one thing. And judging by the way the man acted right afterwards… The man is going to snap.

If he hadn't already.


	9. Ten: Part Three

**Sorry for the shortness of the last chapter. Hope this chapter makes up for it. Hope you enjoy it! XD**

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Oliver and his friends were last to get into the building. Merlin couldn't see them or that man anymore. No many people were left in the parking lot.

Merlin could feel his breathing getting quicker. His heart rate skyrocketed to ungodly levels. Merlin pulled his hands through he forever messy hair. Threatening to pull all of it out. Not that it mattered. It would all grow back in a week.

'What am I supposed to do?!' Merlin panicked, "My protection spells only work against unnatural disasters. Like trees falling or a bus deciding to ram it self in the side of the building! Not some easy to manipulate psycho teacher!'

The feeling of panic started to close his throat. Cutting off his air.

"Arthur needs me." Merlin forced himself to breath. "Arthur needs me."

Merlin repeated this as he started in a run into the school. He only had a second to cast a spell so no one would notice him running through the school. He cried another spell in the words no one will understand to show him the way to Arthur.

His classroom ended up being in the far back of the school. School started ten minutes ago. As he ran Merlin tried to remember if that man was Oliver's teacher or someone elses.

He got to the right class room completely out of breath. He looked through the little window into the classroom. The first thing he noticed was the man in the front of the class.

"Shit!" Merlin cursed. He couldn't use a spell that harms anyone while inside the protection spell. He just need to get everyone out.

Without looking away from the man inside the classroom, he pulled the fire alarm that was next to the door.

He was hoping that if the man thought there was a fire than he would hold off doing whatever it was he wanted to do to leave the school.

It backfired.

Merlin watched as the teacher looked up at the high pitched ringing or the alarm. His face painted into it self and he glared at the window in the door. As if he could see that Merlin was there and wanted to kill him for running his plan. What ever that plan was.

Merlin only had a second to think that it was going to be okay. The man was going to give up for today and leave the school in an orderly fashion just like all the other teachers. But he didn't. Merlin didn't have time to stop him scream at the first kid that got up to leave. Couldn't stop him from pulling a gun from somewhere behind his desk and shooting the child.

"No!" Merlin screamed and through the door open. Therefore breaking the spell that was keeping people from noticing him.

The boy didn't even see the gun, before he fell back. The bullet embedded itself through the kids forehead. A small black circle and a little trickle of blood down from the gunshot wound was all Merlin could see.

The boy's body had fallen back into his chair. If the chair wasn't attached to his desk he would have slid to the ground, but it was. So the lifeless child fell back and slid a little only to be caught by the desk. His head rolled backwards as if he was just sleeping. But his eyes were open. Much too wide for someone alive. His face frozen in a look of shocked horror. The baseball cap that the boy had been wearing fell forgotten on to the blue carpet.

"MAX!" Merlin heard Oliver screeched.

At the same time Merlin bellowed, "Don't move!"

Merlin's golden eyes met the baby blue eyes of Oliver with so much force that Oliver could do nothing but obey. His eyes started to cloud over with tears and fear, but Merlin couldn't do anything about that right now.

"Who are you?!" The teacher with the gun squawked, "Get down!"

The sorry excuse for a man waved the pistol at Merlin. His eyes twisted into intense hate and some kind of sick plaster at seeing him. As if he was happy to have another person to hurt.

All around them the children screamed and pushed their desks back. All of the frightened kids huddling together in a mess of tears and not understanding what is happening.

Merlin eyes looked from Oliver to the teacher and he took a deep breath. Emotion with do more harm than good right now. I need to get all of these kids out. A highschool teacher assistant that had been sitting in the back seat grabbed a few of the kids and pulled them to her. Her eyes looked scared, yes, but she was filled with the need to protect. Merlin could use that.

He let out the breath slowly. Feeling all of his emotions leaving his body. A little trick he learned over his years. His body went cold and his eyes filled with indifference.

"Oh! Sorry mate, did I interrupt something?" Merlin smirked and eyes the man's gun. His hand wasn't shaking.

The man scoffed at the look on Merlin's face and hollered, "Who are you?!"

"Me?" Merlin pointed at himself as if he didn't know who the teacher was talking about. Just to rub it in a little more, he looked behind him as well. Acting as if he was looking for the person the guy seemed to be talking to.

"Who are you!" The man bellowed once again.

"You mean me?" Merlin widened his eyes and fell into a relaxed stance. Resting most of his wait on one foot. "I'm Merlin."

The man scoffed again and walked forward so that his gun was pointed right at Merlin's heart. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here." He clenched his jaw and punched his gun into Merlin's chest with every word. As if he was stamping them into his skin.

Merlin just smirked at the angry man a little wider, "That, sir, is a very good question." With his right hand he wrapped his long fingers around the gun and with the left his waved at the highschool girl. "I'm just visiting a friend of mine from school. You know she was supposed to ditch out the back down behind her and come meet me." Merlin met the eyes of the girl and glanced at the door. The girl's eyes followed his, but she didn't risk a nod. Smart girl. "She was so slow. I had to come and see what was taking her so long. And what do you know? It seems I interrupted something important. What was it that you were doing, anyway?" Merlin smirk became even more smug as he stared the man right in his eyes.

Merlin could feel the burn that told him that his eyes were still gold. Magic flooded him. Filling him to the very brim. The teacher looked shocked as he noticed the color.

"That is nun of your business." The man smirked and Merlin felt the second that the man's grip on the gun changed. At the same time that the psycho pulled the trigger Merlin used his right hand to pulled the gun safely away from his body and all of the people in the classroom. It burned Merlin's head, but he ignored the pain. The gun made a ringing sound start in his ears. Load enough to cover up the ringing from the the fire alarm. Not to mention the screams from the everyone here. Merlin was going to have a splitting headache when this was all over.

Merlin ticked his tongue in his mouth and his left hand motioned the girl behind his back. Merlin pulled the gun back to his chest and grinned at the shocked man. With his other hand he pulled the man by the back of his neck forward. Their faces not an inch apart. Merlin made sure that the man couldn't see anything but his golden eyes.

"You're going to have to do better than that. You want to try again. I'm sure you'll get me sooner or later. Or you'll run out of bullets. What ever comes first." Merlin grinned seemed almost deranged.

The man's eyes finally filled with fear. His hand started shaking and he tried to pulled back from the twenty year old boy holding him. Merlin just squeezed his nails into the sensitive skin.

"W-Who are you?" The man stuttered.

Merlin tilted his head to the side, as if he was confused, "I told you. I'm Merlin. You know the story don't you? About the wizard and the king."

Merlin could hear the crying children try to be quiet as they rushed to get out the back door. His eyes pushed a brighter gold as he heard the petrified whispers between the highschool girl and Oliver.

He hadn't gotten out of his chair. He wouldn't get out of his chair. Most of the children had gotten out already. Merlin had heard the girl tell one of the kids to go and get help from one of the teachers. Only Oliver and a couple others were left. Maybe three other than Oliver and the girl. The boys were all friends with Oliver. Not all of them but the one's Oliver was closer to. Like Max was.

Merlin's smile slipped and he clenched his jaw tight. He let the man's neck go and ripped the gun up. It smack the surprised man's chin, forcing him to let go of the gun. Merlin kicked him in the stomach to push him back a couple feet.

Now that he had a couple seconds free, Merlin twisted around to look at Oliver. His friends were handled by the door. Not wanting to leave until Oliver left as well. The girl was close to bawling. She had her hands tightly wound around Oliver's arms. Trying to pull the boy from his seat. Oliver ground himself in, though, using his legs to chain himself to the seat. Merlin noticed that his eyes kept shifting from Max's lifeless corpse to where Merlin was. His eyes looked like something beyond scared. Merlin didn't think there was even a word for it.

Arthur had never looked like that before. Not even when he was going to die.

Merlin groaned and rolled his eyes at the sight. "Damnit! You never make things easy, do you?"

Oliver jumped at Merlin's words and confusion became the greatest emotion in his eyes. Merlin shook his head, but the sound of a angry behind him called his attention once more.

The man charged for him. His face pink with rage. Merlin simply stepped out of the man's way. The man ran into an empty desk and looked up at Oliver and the girl. As if he had just noticed that most of the children had gotten away, he screamed something only animals would have understood. He looked ready to charge at Oliver and the poor crying girl.

Merlin wrapped his arm around the man's face. Pressing his glasses into his nose. Merlin used his surprise to dragged the man backwards. He kicked his knees so they bent and the man fell to the floor. He hit his head onto the carpet, knocking his glasses off his nose. Merlin stepped on them so he couldn't use them anymore.

The man grunted and grabbed Merlin by the legs. Making him trip and tumble on top of the man. Merlin cursed and kick at the man just growled like some kind of bear and rolled them over. He tried to get a punch in, but Merlin move them before skin could touch skin.

Oliver cried out and leaned forward in his chair so he could still see Merlin. The dumb lady tried to use it as her chance to pull him out of his seat, but Oliver gripped harder on the metal bars of his desk.

"Oliver, please!" The lady begged him. Crying harder now. Oliver clenched his teeth together and shook his head. He wasn't even looking at Max anymore. Merlin was still fighting his teacher. He couldn't leave until he was done.

Oliver watched as Merlin rolled his eyes at Oliver. Merlin was on top now. The man cried out as Merlin pressed his arm down on the man's windpipe.

"Get out of the damn chair, Oliver." Merlin grunted to him as he struggled to hold down the frailing man.

"Oliver come on!" Oliver's friends called from their place by the door.

"Oliver please." The lady repeated, "We need to go."

Oliver shook his head again and a sound close to a whin slipped from his lips. He was afraid that if he tried to talk, to tell them why he didn't want to leave, he would start crying. Oliver Knight doesn't cry. Not even when broke his arm when he was seven.

He didn't cry them he's not crying now.

Merlin looked Oliver in the eyes. That was the first time Oliver noticed the gold. A shiny gold. Like liquid life. Merlin looked right into Oliver's head. His eyes were indifferent. Like he didn't care that he was busy holding down a psychopath. It was as if Merlin was digging through his head for something that wasn't there. Or something that was so deep down that it would take years to find.

"Oliver, It's okay." Merlin's indifference melted little by little. Until all that was left was the kindness Oliver always saw in his eyes. "I've got him now. No one is going to get hurt anymore. Please go and wait outside for me. Stay close to the school. I'll be there as soon as I can, I promise."

Oliver forced himself to swallow and nodded slowly. Merlin smiled at him gave him a pointed look towards the lady next to him. "Go on then. I'll be with you soon."

The last thing he saw was the kindness in Merlin's eyes and the nothingness in Max's before everything went dark.

He could feel skinny arms picking him up and rushing somewhere.

'Outside' Oliver thought, 'I need to go outside. Merlin will come for me outside.'


	10. Ten: Part Four

**Here is another installment of the best story in the world. This is another aftermath story. This time it's Arthur's turn to break down. Hope you like it. XD**

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When the police finally got in to take the psycho teacher off Merlin's hands, the man had passed out. the police patted him on the back and told him he did a very brave thing. They asked him questions about what had happened and how he had got to here. Merlin told them he was dropping Oliver off at his classroom.

"And how do you know this… Oliver Knight?" A tall, dark skinned cop asked him.

Merlin forced his tired skin to smile, "I'm a family friend of the Knights. We go way back." Merlin shrugged, "I usually drive Oliver to and from school."

The cop nodded, "Should we call someone from his family?"

Merlin nodded, "Someone probably should do that, but Ray, Oliver's father, is a work by now. He doesn't usually answer his phone while he's at work."

The dark cop's eyebrows scrunched together in worry, "Is Oliver going to be okay?"

Merlin softened his smile to sooth the cops worries, "I'll take him home. I'll make sure he's okay. Speaking of Oliver, I told him I would meet him outside. He's waiting for me."

Something in Merlin's eyes must have told the cop he meant what he was saying, because he just nodded and waved Merlin off. Merlin didn't waste any time. He set off into a ran as soon a he cleared the door to the classroom.

He found Arthur being cared for by one of the medics standing next to the ambulance. The high schooler was with him. Hovering around the medic with a protective look in her eyes.

Merlin watched them for a while, before going up to them. Oliver seemed to be coming out of a daze or sleep. The medic had him hooked up to an IV as she looked her over for any injuries. Oliver was sitting half inside the ambulance with his feet hanging out the end. He didn't seem to even be aware of his surroundings. Seeing that he was mostly okay, Merlin gave the high schooler at look. She was pretty for a teenager. She looked to be around the age of seventeen. She was pale with thin peach lips and rosy cheeks. Her hair was straight brown that went down to her shoulders. She had brown oval glasses on over her light gray eyes. Her clothes were simple. A nice green v-neck t-shirt and blue jeans. She had on simple flats as well.

If Merlin was younger, much younger, she would have been the type of girl he would have liked.

Merlin walked up to them and gave the girl a quick smile and leaned down to look at Oliver. His knees hit the pavement. Making Merlin a good foot shorter than him. He didn't really seem to see him. He just looked through him.

Merlin's brain feed him the image of an older pair of blue eyes. One with all the life ripped out of them. Left to stare up into the sky for the rest of their existence. Merlin shook his head to clear his thoughts and refocused on the small boy in front of him.

"Oliver?" Merlin tried.

Oliver blinked and looked down at Merlin. Still dazed, but a little more focused.

"What happened?" Merlin turned to the medic, then to the high schooler for an answer.

"He just passed out as soon as we good through the door." The high schooler explained to him. Her voice was high pitched. Still caught up in her panic.

Merlin looked to the medic for more. "He's fine. He just suffered from a mild panic attack. I'm giving a relaxant so he's going to be groger for a while. Other than that I can't see anything wrong with him."

Merlin sighed, relieved, and gave the middle aged woman a gentle smile, "Thank you." He looked over at them the high schooler. "Thank you as well. You did very well back there."

The girl blushed and shook her head, "Not nearly as good as you! That man didn't know what to do from the moment you walked into the room."

Merlin shrugged, "It was nothing."

The medic tapped Merlin on the shoulder to get his attention, "I heard what you did. It was far from nothing." Her eyes were soft. Full with thanks and appreciation. "I have a son about Oliver's age. I'm glad that there are people like you hear to keep these children safe."

Merlin didn't bother with a smile this time. He was just too tired. "I think its about time I take Oliver home."

The medic agreed and unhooked the IV from Oliver and gave him the good to go. She moved on to the next person that might need her. Behind Merlin and Oliver, two medic's were wheeling the dead body of the only child Merlin couldn't save into the other ambulance on the other side of the parking lot. All the teachers and students were crowding around the yellow tape. The tape cut everyone off from the school. All the Teacher's were trying to get the kids to look away from the black body bag. A lot of the younger students were crying.

Everyone kept asking who died. The question seemed to be the only thought that mattered to anyone.

Merlin focused his attention to Oliver. He picked the boy up and held him close to his chest. Oliver wrapped his arms and legs around Merlin's body and stared at the people over Merlin's shoulder.

Oliver seemed to notice the body bag. His head followed the medic's progress across the parking lot with dazed didn't have time to worry about that.

He was about to head to his SUV, still parking in the loading zone in front of the school, when he remember the girl. He looked back at her and saw that she hadn't moved. She was tugging at her t-shirt and staring at the ground like it will give her all answers.

"What's you name?" Merlin asked her.

Her head snapped up and she swallowed before answering, "Mary Alice Tennison. You may call me Alice."

Merlin grinned as he remember an old woman that heal others with her skillful magic. "I'm Merlin." He shifted Oliver's weight onto his left hand and put his right out for her to shake.

The girls blushed again and timidly took his outstretched hand and gave it a small shake. Her hand was small. It was swallowed by his.

"Nice to meet you, Merlin." The girl told him in a soft voice.

Merlin grinned wider, "I work at a dinner about ten minutes north from here. If you ever need to talk about this with someone that was there and not ten. I'll be there during school hours. Even Saturday."

The girl gave him a grateful smile, "Thank you. You are very kind."

Merlin gave an awkward shrug in response, "I try."

He turned towards his car and shifted Oliver back onto both of his arms. Oliver laid his head down on his shoulder. Not falling asleep, but looking away from all the screaming people around them. Merlin understood.

It took a long time to drive out of the crowd. But after that it wasn't long before Merlin had Oliver seated on the couch in the living room. Merlin had called his father after his got to the house. As he had thought, Ray didn't answer. So Merlin left a voicemail telling him a chopped up version of what happened. Merlin told him that he should call the police station if he wanted the full story. He then informed the man that him and Oliver would be at Ray's house when he gets home.

Oliver seemed to be sleeping as he sat, so Merlin gave his a blanket and helped him lay down for a nap. Oliver didn't protest or say anything. He fell asleep pretty quickly too.

Merlin sat on the floor in front of his. He crossed his legs and rested his chin of the couch next to Oliver's face. Merlin sat like that for three hours. Just studying Oliver's face. Trying to find anything and everything that told Merlin that this boy was Arthur.

From the eyes Merlin couldn't see right now to the feeling his magic gave him, there wasn't really any doubt. Merlin just needed the familiarity of it. So that he could calm down and settle his emotions now that he allowed them back in.

After three hours, though, Oliver woke up. Merlin felt a jolt of electricity float through every cell of his body when Arthur's baby blue eyes opened. Merlin couldn't stop the boyish grin even his he wanted to.

"Morning Oliver!" Merlin cheered, "Or should I say good afternoon? It's past noon by now I would think. You must be hungry. Would you like anything to eat? I'm a pretty good cook you know. I've made a lot of things in a lot of differents times. Faster now, though. Everything is so much easier than cooking over a fire."

"Shut up, _Mer_lin." Arthur grumbled in a slurred tone. He little face scrunched up in a familiar look of annoyance. Everything so close to what Merlin remembered that he made a warmth go through his body like a fire.

Merlin's grin was blinding. Oliver had to look away. Oliver blink a couple times and tried to remember where he was. The events of the day broke through his sleepy thoughts and Oliver bit his lips to keep the tears at bay. Merlin saw though, he always saw, and his face softened. He moved forwards to pulled him into a hug, but Oliver flinched. Merlin didn't frown. He just sighed and leaned forward again. Ignoring the next flinch, Merlin gave him a soft kiss on the forehead.

"I know, Oliver." Merlin told him. His lips grazing his damp skin. "I know."

Oliver muffled and scream with his hands. Holding in all the cries and pain with his hands. He clenched his eyes and force himself to breath without choking.

Merlin didn't allow himself to cry either. It would only cause Arthur more pain. Merlin would do anything to lessen Arthur's tears.

They sat like that for what felt like an hour and was probley truely that long. Oliver came close to breaking down and reaching for Merlin's warmth, but he didn't.

He didn't cry.

He didn't cry when his father came home in a rash of angry worry.

He didn't cry when his father would leave him alone and kept asking if he was okay.

He didn't cry when Merlin explained that he just needed time.

He didn't cry when his father cried and held him as if he was the only thing that mattered in the world.

He didn't cry when Merlin told him he was going to be staying in the guest room and told him to try to get some sleep.

He didn't even cry when he was finally left alone in his dark bedroom. Without any cry fathers or comforting Merlin's around his bed.

That night Oliver promised himself that he would never let himself cry again.


	11. Thirteen: Part One

**Sorry it's been a while. This story seems to be slow goings. If you guys have any ideas I would love to hear them. Hope you enjoy this chapter! XD**

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Thirteen:

"Oliver Knight, You get your ass down here this minute!" Merlin grinned at the sound of Oliver's adopted father screaming.

Merlin shook his head and unlocked the door to Ray's house. He opened the door to see Ray glaring up the stairs with green tinted skin around his chin and up the side of his cheeks. Merlin glanced up to see Oliver at the top of the stairs barely holding in his laughter. In the last three years Merlin watched as Oliver went from the perfect child to a pranking smartmouth. His hair was longer now. Not to long as to look like a girl, but long enough to look like a stereotypical bad boy. Oliver even started to wear only black clothes. Things like leather jackets and black skinny jeans. Oliver seemed to love making other people pissed.

"What happened this time?" Merlin asked. He dropped his bag, full of books and snacks, and kicked of his sneakers. After his bag was sitting next to his shoes Merlin shucked off his sweatshirt and tossed it over his bag. Leaving him in a loose fit black t-shirt and blue jeans.

Ray's face was red from anger when he snapped his head around to meet Merlin's eyes. Merlin had to hold his breath so he wouldn't laugh at him. His face looked like christmas.

"This little agitator colored my shaving cream green!" Ray yelled, pointing an accusing finger at his adopted son. Oliver seemed not to be able to hold back his laughter any longer. He almost fell down the stairs he was laughing so hard. "Oliver I have a meeting today! This isn't funny!"

"I beg to differ!" Oliver choked out from his spot at the top of the stairs. Merlin rolled his eyes at the boy. He should know better by now to prank Ray.

"Just for that you aren't allowed to leave this building for the rest of the day!" Ray yelled at his son. He twisted around to look at Merlin and Merlin lifted an eyebrow at the sputtering man. "Merlin here will make sure of it."

Merlin chuckled at the groaning and 'Butt Dad!' he could hear from Oliver. "It will be my pleasure, Ray. I can get that off you, if you want." Merlin pointed at the green on his face.

Ray grinned in relief and gripped Merlin's shoulder in thanks. It had taken a couple years when Arthur was still a baby to gain Ray's trust, but Merlin did it. Ray didn't want to let a twenty year old boy who came out of know where get half his time with his new baby. Merlin had told him the story on how he came acrossed Oliver. Lying about pretending to be a nurse, of course, and the man had softened to him a little. Even told Merlin that he was being very smart about the whole thing.

Merlin put a spell on him a couple days later. Ray still sees Merlin as a man ten years younger than him. Just like when they first met when Ray was still thirty. So while Merlin's stays twenty to everyone around him he looks thirty to Ray. Merlin didn't feel like trying to explain why he never ages to him after a couple years.

Merlin nodded and lead the man into the kitchen. He grabbed a towel and poured water to soak it. He grabbed a little flour just to make it believable and turned back to Ray. "Put the over your face for thirty seconds then go wash your face off. It should be gone after that." Ray nodded seriously and turned to go to the bathroom. As soon as he turned his back, Merlin's eyes burned gold and he muttered a simple spell to make the green color invisible.

As Ray went to clean his face, Merlin walked back in the hall where the front door was located. Oliver was in the middle of slipping his shoes on so he could sneak out. Merlin rolled his eyes and leaned against the door frame to the kitchen. "Oliver you know I'm smarter than that."

Oliver cursed and spun around, dropping his left shoe as he went. "Merlin! Come on! I have plans!" He whined.

Merlin just smirked and pointed to the shoe he had enough time to slip on. "I'm sorry sire, but you have been forbidden from leaving the castle. Now take of that shoe. You look ridiculous."

Oliver glared at him and muttered about stupid adults as he obeyed and took off his shoe.

Ray came out of the bathroom to see Merlin and his son having a staring contest. He chuckle and pointed at Oliver, "You are to stay here and if you don't listen then you will be grounded from a week. You got that?"

"Whatever you say, my lord. Do you wish for me to cook your breakfast as well?" Oliver asked sarcastically.

Merlin guffawed and covered his mouth at the irony of Arthur saying those words. Oliver and Ray ignored him. They were used to his strange attitude.

"Keep talking and I'll ground you right now. Merlin you know how to reach me. Sorry to make you baby sit." Ray told them, looking sheepish.

'Funny how they didn't notice that I already had my shoes off and that I brought a bunch of books here on a day I usually stay home.' Merlin rolled his eyes. 'Sometimes I wonder if I even needed to put a spell on Ray about my age. He probably wouldn't have noticed.'

"No problem, Ray. I had a feeling I was needed for the job." Merlin waved off his concern and walked over to Oliver. He planted himself in front of the boy before he could say anything else to get him to trouble. Merlin could feel the angry glare prince into his bones. He grinned at Ray and waited for the man to leave before turning to look at Oliver.

"Learn, you moron." Merlin told the young boy. His voice full of annoyance, "At least wait for your father to leave before you try to sneak out."

Oliver glared up at the man. He was still a good couple of heads shorter than Merlin was. Merlin stared down at the Oliver and noticed that his glare looked like a carbon copy of Arthurs. Not even the age difference mattered.

Merlin grinned, "You just love your temper tantrums don't you?"

"Shut up, _Mer_lin!" Oliver scoffed at him and stormed past him.

Oliver flopped down onto the couch in the living room and stared blankly at the ceiling. Merlin grabbed his bag and followed after him. He pulled Oliver's feet up and sat down at the end of the couch, setting Oliver's feet down on top of his legs. Oliver crossed his arms. He was getting himself worked up into a pout. Merlin shook his head. He reached into his bag and pulled out the first book his fingers touched.

It was a book called 'Avalon High'. Merlin had got it as a gift from Alice a month ago. Merlin guesses that the girl thought it would be funny. What with his name and all. Merlin hadn't gotten around to reading it yet.

Oliver noticed the bag for the first time and looked up and Merlin. "What's with all the books? What'd you do? Rob and book store?"

Merlin laughed, "These are mine, thank you very much."

Oliver rolled his eyes and sat up, pulling his feet out of Merlin's lap. "So?"

"So what?" Merlin mocked him.

Oliver glared at him and grabbed the couch cushion behind him and threw it at Merlin head. Merlin grinned at him. Oliver almost forgot he was angry when he saw the spark in Merlin's too blue eyes. Almost. "What's with the books, Asshole?!"

Merlin laughed again, "I told Ray I had a feeling I was needed to babysit you."

"I don't need a babysitter." Oliver grumbled. He folded his legs and rested his hands on his knees.

Merlin rolled his eyes, "Sure you don't."

Merlin opened his book and started reading. He got through a page before Oliver started taking again. "Do you really believe I should be punished for a harmless prank that you got rid off it a second?"

"Nope." Merlin popped the p.

"Than why are you keeping me here?" Oliver asked.

Merlin closed the book around his thumb so he would lose his spot. "For fun, I guess."

"Merlin!" Oliver growled, smacking the man in the arm.

"Arthur stop being a prat and I might stop picking on you." Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Arthur?" Oliver repeated.

Merlin frozen for a full second, before he forced himself to smile. "You know King Arthur and Merlin? From the story."

"Stop trying to be witty, _Mer_lin." Oliver glared.

Merlin sighed in relief, "But I'm ever so good at it."

Oliver tossed another pillow at him. "Merlin please. Be serious for once in your life!"

Merlin's face hardened and he looked at the young Arthur next to him, "What?"

Oliver almost shuddered at the look in his eyes. It was hard and almost indifferent. Very similar to the look from years ago. "I-I just think I don't deserve to be stuck here. That's all." Oliver cursed himself for the stutter, but Merlin's eyes soften at it. It was as if it was the key to Merlin's heart.

"Where do you want to go than?" Merlin asked softly.

Oliver swallowed, "I had plans to met my friends at the mall."

Merlin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You are such a prat. Unfair little cabbage head. Just can't believe how easy it is!" Merlin grumbled to himself. Almost too quietly for Oliver to hear, but he did.

It made him grin. "So I can go!" Oliver jumped up in excitement.

Merlin leaned into the back of the couch and looked through Oliver. "I have two rules and I don't care if it sounds stupid. I don't care if you think you're so smart and you don't want to follow it. I will know if you don't. You know that, Oliver." He gave the boy a hard look that made him straighten. "You are not to leave the mall until you are ready to come home and you will not smoke."

Oliver swallowed nervously and nodded his head. He didn't even bother to ask how Merlin knew that Oliver's friends smoked. He had learned years ago that Merlin just couldn't be fully understood.

"You understand, Oliver?" Merlin asked him.

Oliver could only nod, but it seemed to be enough, because Merlin smiled at him. The smile melted at the cold air that had surrounded them in the last couple of minutes. "Then go have fun, my lord. Be back before your father."

Now that the almost scary atmosphere was gone, Oliver grinned. "Thank you, Merlin!"

"Yeah yeah." Merlin waved him off. He forced himself to sit still as he watched Oliver run out of the house. The door slammed shut with a ringing sound. "I can't believe this is so hard. Sometimes I wish Oliver wasn't so much like Arthur…"

Merlin ended up having to spend the rest of the day looking out for Oliver. Half way to make sure that today didn't become another bad day. Half way to make sure Oliver followed Merlin's rules.

He never did get around to reading that book.


	12. Thirteen: Part Two

**I'm not really sure about this chapter. Anyone of you awesome people have any ideas feel free to tell me. I would love to hear from you. Hope you like it any way! XD**

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"Is that your father, Oliver?" Reina asked him.

Reina smith was one of the school friends that Oliver made when he entered middle school. They've been friends for three years now. They were both thirteen and in eighth grade.

Reina is a sweet girl with messy brown curls that go down to her ass. She had chocolate caramel colored skin and big brown eyes. She was taller than him, like most girls were at her age, but he was catching up pretty quickly. She liked to wear loose clothing to cover up the fact that her bombs grew as quickly as her height did.

Oliver remembered that her name meant something special. Merlin had told him when he told her about his new friend that first year they had met. Something like 'peaceful queen' or whatever. They weren't very close. More like two people that talked sometimes during class.

That's what they were doing now at the school's front entrance while they waited for the bell to ring. Oliver had just gotten dropped off by Merlin a couple minutes pryer.

To his annoyance, Merlin had gotten out of the car to meet Reina after he saw her. How Merlin knew who she was, was anyone's guess.

"No way in hell!" Arthur scoffed, "Reina look at him! He would have had to have me when he was ten for him to be my father!"

"Geez, no need to snap at me." Reina muttered, "I'm just asking."

Oliver forced himself to breath in deeply to calm himself down. "Sorry. I just don't get why so many people think Merlin is my father."

Reina gave him a look, "You're the one who should know best, Oliver. You've known him your whole life. He obviously is older than he looks."

Oliver rolled his eyes. Merlin is _**not**_ some old guy. There's no way he could be some old guy. Yes, Oliver has known him his whole life but Merlin doesn't change.

Oliver's eyes widened at the thought.

Merlin doesn't change!

"Oliver where are you going? What about school?" Reina called after him.

Oliver ignored her and turned to go into the alley behind the school. He always goes there when he wants to think. He found a relatively clean spot by the wall and sat down with his back against it. Usually he come here with Delilah, a blonde girl from his gym class, but he didn't feel like making out with anyone right now.

'Merlin doesn't change.' Oliver repeated in his head, trying to figure out the truth behind those words. 'Merlin looks around twenty. I am thirteen. That would mean that he had to be only seven when I was born.'

Oliver bit his lip and did a little quick math. 'That would mean that every day that he drove me to school from kindergarten to fourth grade he was breaking the law.' Oliver smirked. 'Not to mention he somehow kicked a full grown man's ass when he was supposed to be only seventeen at the time.'

Oliver lost his smile at the thought of the man from fifth grade. 'No, Merlin was twenty then and his twenty now.'

Oliver rubbed his eyes and stared blankly at the brick wall in front of him, "But that's not possible… He's just… Merlin."

It was a full hour before Oliver got in together and went inside for school. He was angry. About what? He didn't know.

He took his anger out on everyone around him. He snapped at his friends and refused to even talk to Delilah. He was such an ass to his teachers that he got lunch and after school detention. They didn't call his father though. Thank god. Oliver didn't feel like being grounded today as well.

When school was over he ignored the detention slip he got and walked out front to wait for Merlin. 'It's not like they can force me to stay.' He thought to himself.

Merlin's SUV, that he's been driving for as long as Oliver could remember, pulled up to the pick up line. Even though Oliver had been waiting impatiently for him to show, he hesitated to get into the car. He was scared and that pissed him off. 'Why should I be scared!?' Oliver thought. 'It's not me that is abnormal!... But… What if he leave once he finds out I know something? He can't leave!'

Oliver clenched his teeth and pulled the car door ruffly open. He slammed it shut once he was inside. He huffed and crossed his arms. Glaring at the people in front of them as if they were the cause of all of his problems.

Merlin, who had jumped at the rage, stared at Oliver with open shock. "What the hell is your problem?"

"Nothing." Oliver answered automatically.

"Right." Merlin rolled his eyes. "Oliver what is it?"

"Can we just drive, please?!" Oliver snapped, but unlike his friends, who scrambled to get away from him when he was pissed, Merlin thinned his lips into a straight line and crossed his arms over his chest. Making it clear that he wasn't going to go anywhere without an answer.

Oliver growled in frustration and glared at the man. "Merlin can't we at least go somewhere else before you force me to spill my guts?"

Merlin softened, "Where do you want to go?"

"Your place?" Oliver tried.

Merlin smiled, "No. Next?"

Oliver glared at him again. Merlin never lets him go to his flat. Oliver doesn't even know where it is. Its unfair since Merlin know's where Oliver is at all times.

"Fine." Oliver grumbled, "Take me home than."

"So you can lock yourself inside your room?" Merlin shook his head, "No way."

Oliver forced himself to let breath deeply so that he wouldn't try to murder the man. "Just drive around then."

Merlin winked at him and started the car. "Whatever you say, My lord."

It took twenty minutes of random driving before Oliver caved to the silence. "What's wrong with you?"

Merlin laughed, "Swe me for wanting to find out what's wrong with my best friend."

Oliver paused at that, "Best friend?"

Merlin just rolled his eyes again, "Why else do you think I hang out with you so much?"

"Because your friends with my father." Oliver guessed even though he never really believed that. He would hang out with his father if they were friends, but the only time they spend together was when Oliver was there.

Merlin snorted, "If you believe that then I've done a horrible job at trying to not have you see me as a father figure."

This time Oliver snorted, "You? A father figure? When hell freezes over, maybe."

"Good." Merlin laughed. Her shot a grin towards Oliver. It made Oliver feel better. Merlin always made him feel better. Even when everything seemed to be going wrong.

"Merlin…" Oliver voice was too soft. As if he was scared. He felt like a sharp pain to Merlin. It physically hurt him.

"Oliver please just tell me what's wrong?" Merlin begged. He pulled the car over when they got to the park a couple blocks from Oliver's house.

Oliver sucked in a breath and shoved any fears about Merlin leaving back to a far corner of his brain. "How old are you?"

Merlin narrowed his eyes and studied Oliver from head to toe. He did it for so long that Oliver's fears came back to front of his head. Merlin must have seen the fear, because he forced himself to smile. The smile was nothing like the one that spreads warmth. Oliver didn't like it.

"Are you sure you want to know, Oliver?" Merlin asked instead of answering.

Oliver swallowed down the tremble, "Are going to leave me if you give me an answer?"

Merlin laughed. Laughed! As if the question was the stupidest thing Oliver could have ever said. "Of course not, idiot. I couldn't leave you even if I wanted to."

Oliver brightened, "Really?"

He laughed again, "Best friends, remember?"

Oliver nodded, happier than he's been in a long time, "Then how old are you?"

Merlin smiled gently at Oliver, "The number is too great for me to give. I stopped coating many years ago."

Oliver stared at Merlin. Waiting for him to start laughing and tell him that he was joking. He never did.

"So you're what? A vampire or something?" Oliver asked, confused.

"No. I don't much like the taste of blood." Merlin chuckled.

"So then what are you?"

"That," Merlin pointed at Oliver, "Is something I wish for you to find out on your own."

"But-" Oliver started, but Merlin cut him off.

"No butts. I need you to keep what I've told you secret and stop asking questions." When Oliver's face didn't change Merlin added, "Please. Trust me, Oliver."

That question seemed loaded somehow. As if Merlin put more weight in it than Oliver could ever understand. So all he could do was nod. And when he did the smile Merlin gave was that warm one. The one that never failed to make Oliver feel better. Powerful even. As if he wasn't just a thirteen year old kid.


	13. Thirteen: Part Three

**Here is yet another bad day for our boys. I only hope now one dies from it this time. Hope you like it! XD**

* * *

"No."

"Please Merlin! You always help me with my homework!" Oliver whined.

Merlin rolled his eyes and whipped down the table Oliver was next too. "I don't do it for you."

Oliver huffed, "You're not going to do it for me! Just help me answer some questions."

Before Merlin could tell Oliver no again, he was called away by one of his tables.

After Oliver figured out that Merlin wasn't completely normal, he started coming around on weekends to the dinner Merlin worked at. He would sit at one of the tables until Merlin was done with his shift. Maybe do some of his homework or buy something to eat.

Merlin didn't mind. Any time spent with Arthur was great. However Oliver seems to think if he bothers Merlin long enough Merlin will grow wings, or set something on fire, or something. As if he is trying to find out more about why Merlin doesn't age.

Merlin can understand that much. He just finds it really hard to work when he's got a hundred and ten pound boy following your every move.

As Merlin dealt with the couple a few tables away from Oliver, Oliver put away his math homework in favor of the history worksheet that he wanted Merlin to 'help' him with. He got it all setup and evened out on the checkered table in front of him. Set the mechanical pencil next to the paper so that it would be parallel.

After he got everything perfect, and there wasn't really anything else for him to do, Oliver tried to people watch. Merlin once told him that it helped to pass the time. Oliver didn't think so.

All the people that come to diners on a weekend are families or couples. It's boring to watch a bunch of kids talking too loud and people making goo goo eyes at each other. Especially for a thirteen year old.

Oliver's friends didn't understand why he would want to sit at some crappy diner every weekend. Just to watch Merlin, a person they find boring, work. Sometimes Oliver didn't understand it either, but he liked hanging out with Merlin.

The more time he hung out with Merlin, the more time he felt powerful. The more time he felt that Merlin wasn't lying about them being best friends. Somewhere deep down Oliver felt good that 'the old family friend' talks to him more than his father.

Oliver's always been a little possessive. He was an only child. Of course he doesn't like to share. Not that he thinks of Merlin as a toy or anything. More like he sees him a friend. Like when you are great friends with someone and you get a little jealous when they hang out with other friends instead of hanging out with you.

As Oliver was waiting for the return of Merlin, a girl came into the diner. She had on a pencil skirt and some kind of frilly blouse. Her brown hair was up in a tight bun and she had on simple black flats. She looked to be around twenty. Like Merlin always is. She had her jacket wrapped over one arm and thin glasses on her nose.

Oliver didn't have to look very hard to see who she was. He would never forget those eyes.

Merlin caught sight of girl and after saying a quick word to the couple at the table he was serving, he went right up to her. The girl relaxed as soon as she saw him. Merlin didn't even say hi. He just wrapped his arms around her shoulders and hugged her.

The girl hugged him back. Her painted fingers gripping onto Merlin's uniform.

"Alice, it's good to see you." Merlin told her after he pulled back.

Alice gave him a merry smile and nodded, her hands pulled back to grip the ends of his sleeves. "I know it's been a while. School just got really hectic this month."

"You mean last three months." Merlin teased her. "Come on I'll get your us all."

Alice grinned this time and followed Merlin to the only empty table left in his section.

The one next to Oliver.

Alice didn't notice the young boy staring at her. Didn't notice that fact that his hands were clenched into tight fists. Didn't even notice that the boy was turned to her in his booth. All she seemed to care about was Merlin.

Merlin however did notice. He stopped on his way past Oliver's table to give the boy a quick shoulder squeeze before going to the kitchen to get Alice her pancakes.

Leaving Oliver and Alice alone.

Oliver didn't want her to see him, but he couldn't seem to look away. She was the same, but different. Oliver remembered that she used to have more baby fat around her waist and cheeks. Her eyes were clear now. As if they had never been sobbing as her hands tried to force Oliver from his desk.

Force Oliver from Merlin.

As if Alice could hear Oliver's thoughts, she turned her head to the right and her eyes locked with his. At first she only looked confused, probably wondering why this strange boy was staring at her like he just saw god, then her eyes widened. The look in her eyes seemed to sadden from their clear look.

All Oliver could see in front of him was the eyes of a young girl screaming at him to come with her. To run and leave the only person he feels safe with to a fight with a crazed teacher. Those gray eyes were full of tears that spilled over and ran down her cheeks like someone turned on the faucet and forgot to turn it off. Her voice begging me to run like a coward. To worry about his own safety above the man fighting to keep him safe.

Right as Alice opened her mouth to try for words, Oliver jumped out of the booth to do what she had begged him to do three years ago.

Run.

Oliver ran out of the diner as he it was on fire. He didn't even hear the surprised cry that came from Alice's mouth. He had forgotten his homework, but he didn't think about that. Merlin would get it for him.

The only thoughts he could keep inside his head was the thoughts he didn't want. A small boy almost half his size with a baseball cap on top of his head danced in front of his head.

Max had been his friend since he had started school. They had never really gotten along very well. Oliver always picked on him, while Max like to make the bigger boy look stupid. Max was really smart. They were very much opposites. Somehow though they were still friends.

If anyone other than Oliver picked on Max than Oliver would make them say sorry. Using whatever means necessary.

If anyone other than Max called Oliver a retard Max made sure they know just how retarded they were.

They weren't even that close. They didn't say anything to each other outside of mocking each other and they didn't really care if the other was to move somewhere far away. It was just the fact that they had the same friends and they were the first people that the other had talked to in kindergarten. They felt like it was their duty to protect the other. Even if that never stopped them from teasing each other.

Oliver hated to think about his once friend. If he thought about Max than he thought about the last time he had seen him. A body slumped against his chair with a bloody hole in his brain that had once ran circles around Oliver.

It made it very hard for Oliver to keep his promise to himself.

He didn't know how far he had gotten before he was forced to stop so he could breath. Oliver had to shove the tump in his throat down. He would _**not**_ cry!

Oliver crossed the street and started for the nearest bus stop. He wanted to go home.

Before he could get very far however, something grabbed him around the waist and pulled him back into an alleyway. The grip took the air right out of him. Quickly bringing his thoughts to the present, Oliver kicked at who ever had grabbed him. The man jumped and let go enough for Oliver to twist around to face his attacker.

It was a man at least six feet tall. Oliver didn't know who he was. The man smelled like alcohol and smoke. Oliver smelled this smell on his friends all the time, but something about this man made the small worse somehow.

The man was scruffy. With a beard that Oliver thought had something in it. Maybe dirt. The man was young, at least he could have been young under all that dirt. He had his hood up and his eyes were covered in the shadows.

Before Oliver could recate after finally seeing who it was attacking him, the man growled. A sound that sent shivers of fear down Oliver's spine. The man pulled something from his pocket and press it against Oliver's side.

By the feel of cold metal, Oliver guessed that it was a knife.


	14. Thirteen: Part Four

**I felt bad leaving you hanging like that. So here you go. The next part to my wonder. ;) Hope you like it! XD**

* * *

One Merlin came back with Alice's pancakes, Oliver was already long gone. Merlin narrowed his eyes at the empty booth. He could see Oliver's homework still sitting on the table.

"Merlin! I just saw Oliver!" Alice cried when she saw Merlin nearing the table. She jumped up from her seat and Merlin set her food down.

"What happened!?" Merlin barked, uncaring of the fact that he sounded harsh. Something didn't feel right. Merlin _**hated**_ when something didn't feel right.

Alice flinched at his tone, but answered his question. She had learned over the years that Merlin rarely got so worked up unless it had something to do with Oliver. "He obviously knew who I was and he was staring at me like he had seen a ghost. But before I could saw anything to him he booked it out of the diner. Merlin he looked terrified." Alice rushed to tell him everything he might want to know. Her words tripping over each other.

Merlin cursed and rolled his hands into fists to keep his magic from killing everyone in the diner. "Did you see which way he went?" Merlin forced himself to say the words calmly. He didn't want to scare Alice. she was a sweet girl.

Alice didn't hesitate to point to the right as his answer. Now that Merlin had it he didn't need to wait for anything else. Almost faster that Oliver had, Merlin ran out of the diner. He didn't even stop to tell his boss that he had to leave. He'll probably be fired.

Alice sighed and slipped into her booth, in front of her pancakes, suddenly tired.

Somehow she didn't feel like eating anymore.

"Be silent boy and it won't hurt." The man hold the knife to Oliver came even closer. The man's free hand went to grab at Olivers arm, but found nothing but air. Oliver hand twisted into the blade so the man couldn't get a hold of his arm. The blade didn't get through his skin. It was a curved knife. Like a pocket knife.

The man growled again and raised the knife higher. This time right in between his ribs. "Stop moving around. There will be plenty of time for that later. Lets just get you out of those clothes first." The man even had the nerve to lick his lips.

Oliver narrowed his eyes and pushed any fear he felt to the back of his mind. After the death of Max Oliver's father and Merlin felt like he should be able to fight for himself. They signed him up for self defence classes that raged from kickboxing to karate. While Oliver would be the first to tell you he didn't learn too much in the last three years, he wouldn't call himself weak.

He was a thirteen year old boy that would fight to the bitter end if need be.

When the man tried to pull Oliver back a step so the he would be deep into the cave, Oliver moved his hands down to the hand hold the knife. Merlin had taught him a trick on making someone let something go. If he could just get a hold of the hand he could he a hold of the knife.

The man must have seen the movement however, because the next thing he knew the knife was cutting through his t-shirt and the man hand wrapped his other hand around Oliver's throat. Squeezing until Oliver choked.

The man simply laughed when Oliver tried to get the hand off of him. He pulled Oliver deeper into the shadows and threw him into a pile of what felt like cardboard. The boxes flated under Oliver's weight and Oliver only barely avoided hitting his head in the dumpster behind them.

Oliver twisted onto his right side when the man tried to fall on top of him. The man growled again and went to grabbed something next to him. Just as Oliver opened his mouth to call for help, a dirty cloth that tasted like something Oliver didn't really want to think about got stuffed down his throat. In the same motion, the man gripped Oliver's arm and turned him back onto his back.

Oliver fought. Swinging his legs up so that they would be trapped up the man and trying to kick him in the face. The man jumped back and muttered a curse word before grabbing the pant leg of his right leg. He yanked the leg up and over his shoulder. Seeming to like that position way too much.

Hoping to destacking the man from his other leg, Oliver reached to pull the disgusting rage out of his mouth. It seemed to work. The man, using the hand with the knife to hold him leg on his shoulder, restrained his hands above his head with the other.

Oliver screamed a muffled shout of anger at the pervert. The man just laughed. He moved his knife down Olivers leg and stopped at the zipper to his jeans. Some of the fear that Oliver had pushed away started to fill is thoughts. Oliver's eyes widened when the man started to press the knife down on the zipper. Right on top of Oliver's most sensitive spot.

Right at it was starting to hurt he stopped. Laughing all the while. He placed the knife to his pinky finger and used his now free fingers to unzip Oliver's pants.

He didn't stop there.

The man kept moving his fingers until he got all the way to skin. Oliver cried out and swallowed bile down around the rage. The man made a purring sound that made every part of Oliver want to rip apart just to get away from him.

The fingers slipped Oliver out of his jeans. The man bent forward so his face was closer to Oliver's. Making his leg that was still over the man's shoulder stretch uncomfortably. The stomach clenching smell filled Oliver's nose and he glared at the man. Not backing down.

He did flinch though when the man start to stroke Oliver. The mental handle of the knife rubbing into his most sensitive part on every stroke. He choked on the rage as his gag reflex kicked in.

Oliver hated his body for responding. He couldn't stop it. Even if it wasn't the reaction the man was looking for, Oliver hated it. He wanted to be stone. Unfeeling and hard to break.

The man seemed to be getting bored and backed up so he could get at his own pants.

Oliver saw his chance.

Using the leg that the man had forgotten he kicked out. Right at the hand still holding the knife. The knife pierced the man's leg, causing him to cry out and loosen his hold on Oliver's arms. Oliver wrench them away from his dirty fingers. He kicked again. Hitting the knife once more. Forcing it into the man leg deeper.

Not giving the man anytime to be angry at Oliver or try to get the knife out, Oliver hoofed his foot into his stomach, making him lose his breath.

Fear started to cloud Oliver's eyes. The man reached for Oliver and Oliver saw red.

_**No one hurts me!**_

Oliver screamed and wrenched the pocket knife out of the mans upper thigh. Using all the strength Oliver didn't know he had, he impaled the blade into the dirty man's shoulder. He didn't stop there though. He quickly pulled the knife back out and stabbed him again. And again. And again.

He didn't stop until someone yanks his arm back. Stopping the thrust in mid air. Oliver whirled around to attack this new danger, but the person just seized the hand that held the knife. Using that trick Oliver didn't get to use to make the knife fall to the alley floor.

"Oliver _**stop!**_" A force ordered firmly. Oliver's cleared just enough to recognize Merlin. "You're safe now."

Oliver shook his head, "He was going to rape me! I didn't know what to do! Please believe me! I didn't mean to-"

Merlin dragged Oliver's limp body into his chest. Oliver only then noticed the blood on him. It was all down his chest and spread on his pants. He could even feel it on his face. He tried to pull away from Merlin, so he wouldn't get that man's blood all over him, but Merlin simply held him tighter.

"It's done now." Merlin informed him. "You're safe." He repeated.

Oliver wouldn't cry. He wouldn't. He _**couldn't**_.

But he could relax. He could bury his face into Merlin's neck and fist his hands into Merlin's work uniform. He's okay now. Nothing can hurt him here. Not with Merlin so close.

Merlin tensed when he heard people walk by the ally, but they either couldn't see them because of the shadows or they weren't paying the dark ally any mind.

"We need to get out of here." Merlin whispered to the shaking boy in his arms.

Oliver trembled, "But what about _**him**_?!" Oliver didn't turn to look at the body, because he knew it was a body. He felt that fact in the blood that he was covered in. That would mean leaving the only place that he was completely safe.

Merlin glanced at the cooling body in front of them. He couldn't help the glare that the body sparked. He forced himself to keep his voice gentle. "You need to cover yourself up. Don't worry about anything else. I'll take care of it."

Oliver ignored the burn of shame at the thought that he still hadn't tucked himself back into his pants in favor of asking, "What are you going to to do?" Oliver hated that his voice broke two time in that once sentence.

Merlin moved Oliver's face back so that he could look Merlin in the eyes. His too blue eyes stared into the baby blue so full of fear and tried for a smile. "Hey, I'm the over a thousand year old man remember? Trust me."

Oliver could only nod. He pursed his face into Merlin's neck again and tucked himself away. Merlin took advantage of the movement to cast his spell. This was one that he didn't have to speak to have work for him. He had used it too often over his many years. It was like second nature.

The spell covered Oliver's and Merlin's tracks. No one that came across this sack of meat would have nothing to point it to them.

The second that was done he went to stand. Oliver clung to him so tightly that he had no choice but to follow Merlin.

Oliver didn't know how they had gotten into the car, but he saw that the car hadn't been started yet. They were sitting in front of the diner. Merlin's coat had some how made its way over Oliver's shoulders. It hid some of the blood.

Before Merlin could turn the key and start the car, Oliver yanked his hand away. "Please don't take me home! I can't-"

Merlin intertwined his fingers with Oliver's. "Shh… Oliver I won't. We're going to my flat. You'll be safe there."

Oliver didn't seem to have heard his words. He was just staring at Merlin and his hands. Intertwined as if they fit. He found enough energy to nod for Merlin, but when Merlin went to take his hand back Oliver tightened his hold.

Merlin just rolled his eyes and reached around the steering wheel to start the car with his left hand. They got to Merlin's flat in an hour. Oliver never knew that Merlin lived so far from his house. Merlin was always there to take him to school. Even his job is close by. Why would Merlin go through all the trouble to wake up an hour early just to drive to Oliver's house and take him to school?

Merlin slid across the divider so that they could get out of the car without letting go of each other's hands. He banged his head on the roof, but he ignored that.

It wasn't long before Merlin had Oliver sitting on the toilet inside the flat he lived in when he was still a newborn. With Merlin kneeling in front of him. Merlin looked up so he could look Oliver in the eyes.

"Can you shower by yourself or do you want my help?" Merlin asked the bloody boy in front of him. Oliver flinched at the thought of a shower, but nodded at Merlin. When Merlin stood up, Oliver squeezed Merlin's hand so he would know that he didn't want him to leave.

Merlin smiled gently and squeezed back.

They were silent as Merlin helped Oliver out of his ruined clothes. When Oliver was left in only his boxers, Oliver pulled on Merlin's shirt. He blushed at Merlin's raised eyebrow. "I don't want to be the only one to… And besides you have blood on you as well."

Merlin chuckled at the red face, "I get it. No need to be so embarrassed."

Oliver just blushed harder and covered it by pulling Merlin's shirt up over his face. Leaving it there so he wouldn't have his eyes on him when he pulled Merlin's pants off. Merlin just laughed. Making the room feel warmer and brighter.

They got in with their boxers still on. Merlin thought it would make Oliver feel safer. It did, even if it made him feel stupid to take a shower in his underwear.

The cleaned each other quickly. Oliver and Merlin just wanting all the blood gone. They didn't stay to clean their hair. They just went in, got it done, and got out.

It was still in the middle of the day, but Merlin could see how tired Oliver was. Merlin guided the boy into his bedroom.

"Why is there a crib in here?" Oliver asked, eyes staring at the crip that Merlin had forgotten was even there.

Merlin shrugged and pushed Oliver down on the bed. As he was pulling the blanket up over him, he answered, "I used to take care of you when you were a baby."

"You've been with me my whole life haven't you?" Oliver asked. His baby blue eyes stared into Merlin's with such intensity that Merlin almost thought he was talking about some time before him.

But no, he just talking about now. Merlin smiled down at Oliver, eyes tender, "Of course. How else could I know you so well?"

Oliver looked confused, "Why?"

Merlin looked confused right back, "What do you mean?"

"I mean why have you taken care of me my whole life? You've lived so long you can't remember anymore. That's what you told me. Why did you pick me to take care of. Out of all the babies in the world. Why me?"

Merlin couldn't help, but grin. "Lets call it destiny." Oliver recalled his nose at the gooey sounding word, making Merlin laugh. "Now get some sleep. I'll be right here when you need me."

Merlin was rewarded with a broken smile and a yawn.

The last thing Oliver heard before he finally let himself fall asleep was Merlin saying, "I'm sorry this is so hard, Arthur."


	15. Fifteen: Part One

**I am on a role today! I wish it was like this all the time! I might have finished this story by now. Oh well, what can you do? Hope you enjoy some laugher stuff after that last chapter. XD**

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Fifteen:

"Oh, _**oh**_! Oliver yes!" Anne cried out in a moan as Oliver pounded into her. She shivered and came before she could blink. He nails dug into her pillow. Oliver didn't stop moving. He just went faster. Uncaring that it might be getting a little too rough.

Using his right hand to keep her hips in place, he used his left to press Anne's face into her pillow, right in between her hands. She groaned and pushed her ass higher into the air so he could reach her womb with every thrust.

Oliver grabbed a handful of red hair and pulled until she was sitting up and could sit on him. He bit at her neck and growled at her whimper. Her used his now free right hand to twist her clint.

It wasn't long before she came again. This time with Oliver following after her.

They fell like rocks to the bed below them. Oliver had to fall on his side as to not crush Anne.

Oliver had met Anne when he started high school. She was a junior with a lot of friends. Not all of them were very good people, mind you, but they could get you things. Useful things. Like fake ID cards and beer. Drugs too, but Oliver doesn't do that.

Anne had long red hair that went down her body like waves and plump pink lips. Her eyes were green. She had high cheekbones that shaped her face into something sinful in nature. Anne is one of those girls that does what she see fit and won't stop even if it hurts another person. She likes to party and she loves sex. When she met Oliver she loved being able to teach him everything she knew about sex. Oliver was a toy to her, so that was how he felt about her as well. When they felt like it, they would meet up and be sinners for a while.

Now it's a year later and they haven't stopped their little routine yet. Much to Oliver's father's annoyance.

Once they had caught their breath, Oliver got up. As he was pulling on his pants, Anne told him, "There's a party tomorrow night."

Oliver shrugged on his t-shirt, "Alright. See ya later." They didn't say anything else. They don't usually talk much. Anne for one isn't very into anything right after sex. She doesn't want anything to become intimate. He didn't care either way. Really, he just wanted to go to bed.

Oliver had to wait for the bus to get there before he could go to bed though. He glared at the stupid bench at the bus stop. It never seemed to be clean enough for him to sit on.

After waiting almost an hour for the damn bus to come, Oliver then had to tolerate the slow ride to the bus stop by his house. Then he was forced to walk the rest of the way. So he wasn't in a very good mood when he did finally get to his house.

He was so tired that he didn't even bother with climbing up the tree to get to his bedroom. He just walked through the front door. Of course Ray was waiting for him. Of course Merlin was there too. Of course they noticed him the second he closed the door.

It's not like he can have a good day. He can't even have an okay day. Nope. All Oliver get's is good sex and a bucket full of crap.

"Do you know what time it is?!" Ray screamed at Oliver.

"Bed time." Oliver ignore Ray's anger and started for the stairs.

"It is way past your bedtime, Oliver!" Ray yelled, cutting his son off before he could get to his goal.

Merlin yawned. Ray had called him from his bed a couple of hours ago. Told him that he had no idea where his son was and that he was scared that he was drunk somewhere in a ditch on the side of the road. Merlin had had to hold back his sleepy laughter.

Merlin knew Oliver was fine. After the incident when Oliver was thirteen Merlin cast a spell on Oliver so that if he was ever in real danger Merlin would know. That was two years wanted to hit himself for not thinking of it sooner.

"I know. That's why I'm trying to go to sleep." Oliver informed Ray. He stood back on the balls of his feet. Dead on his feet. Merlin could tell. He must have had a long day.

Merlin found that after Oliver hit his growth spurt, Merlin could read him better. Oliver looks so much like Arthur now it was eery. Oliver's hair was still longer than Arthur had ever worn it, but Merlin had a feeling Arthur had it this way at one point in his youth as well. Oliver didn't have the same muscle as Arthur did, but that was really only because Oliver was young.

Ray looked like he was close to hitting the young man. Merlin rolled his eyes. He seemed to remember something like this happening a lot when he was with Arthur as well. Uther would yell and bitch. He would grow to a one step from smacking Arthur right across his smart mouthed face. All the while Merlin would stand in the background watching it all.

It made Merlin very amused.

"Where were you, young man?!" Ray yelled, pointing his pointer finger in Oliver's face, "And don't you dare tell me you were at Zach's! I call his house!"

"Well, in that case I was no where." Oliver told him sarcastically.

"Oliver it is the middle of the night! You tell me where the hell you have been this whole time or so help I'll-" Ray started in. Merlin knew the man loved to talk. While Uther was more about glaring and telling Arthur he was disappointed before throwing his son in a cell, Ray seemed to love spending hours yelling.

Merlin rolled his eyes, "So it seems you got down all the screaming. Are we done now?" Merlin leaned back on the coach he's been sitting on for the last three hours. Watching as Ray wore a rut into the carpet in front of him.

Ray jumped at the sound of Merlin's boredom. Merlin could see the smirk on Oliver's face. Merlin had to admit he loved being able to talk back to Ray like he never could with Uther.

"What's wrong with you?!" Ray cried, making Oliver wince at the high pitch, "Aren't you worried? Oliver has been God knows where and-"

Merlin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah I've been hearing you rant about it for hours. I get it." From the corner of his eye Merlin could see Oliver shift his gaze to the floor. Guilt at what Merlin had gone through because of him. Merlin smirked and stood from the couch. Yep, he loved that he could read Oliver as well, if not better, than Arthur. He had missed being able to do that.

"Merlin, I-" Oliver started only to be cut of by Ray.

"I'm sorry that I wasted your precious time, but I thought you of all people would be worried about not knowing where Oliver was." Ray glared at Merlin. The man he still believed was ten years younger than him.

Merlin just found it funny. It was like a child throwing a temper tantrum. "Of course I would be worried If Oliver was actually missing, but he wasn't. I would have known if he was in any danger. I would've called you. And really you of all people should know yelling at him just makes him annoyed. You, Ray, are talking to a wall." Merlin laughed, because he knew what that felt like. Now though, Merlin knew the rules better than anyone in the world could ever hope to.

"I was just with Anne. It wasn't like I running through town in my birthday suit." Oliver snapped in a very Arthur way. It made Merlin grin widely. Which then made Oliver loose any, if he had any to begin with, anger as well as make him relax.

Merlin couldn't remember a time where it was ever this easy to make Arthur feel better.

Merlin could see the confused anger on Ray's face, so before he could try to forbid Merlin from Oliver or something stupid like that Merlin sighed. He waved his hand and gave Oliver a pointed look. "But hey I'm not your father so I can't really say anything can I? You are coming home late and your father was worried. Since he isn't as great at I am at knowing when you might need help, you should probably call him when your going to be late."

Oliver rolled him eyes and crossed his arms across his chest. "Well he's not my father either." He muttered in a soft voice, but Ray heard it.

Merlin sighed again and squeezed Oliver on the shoulder as he went to pass him to the door. "I'm going to leave before that starts a fight. Call me when you want that ride from the party tomorrow."

Merlin closed the door on Ray shouting "If you think your going to that party than you can think again, Oliver!"

Merlin sighed again. Oliver found out that he was adopted last year when he was still trying to get passed killing someone. It was a horrible time for him to find out. Really, Merlin had told Ray to tell him when he was younger, but the man wanted to 'wait'. Merlin still didn't know how long he would have waited if Oliver hadn't found the paper work.

Merlin got into his car and sat back in his chair. Usually, when the adoption fight came up it would last for a couple hours at least. Oliver looked pretty tired though, so he might just ignore the whole thing if favor of getting away.

As if Merlin had cued it with his thoughts, he saw Oliver open his bedroom window. Ray really should get rid of that tree if he doesn't want Oliver going away at all hours. Ray acts as if he doesn't know that that is how Oliver gets out of the house.

Merlin waved at Oliver when the young man turned from the bottom of the tree. Oliver only looked some what surprised. Merlin was usually outside when Oliver decided he could sleep inside Ray's house that night.

Oliver got in on the passenger's side and stared at Merlin for a while before talking. "Am I really like talking to a wall?"

Merlin snorted in his effort not to laugh and failed anyway. "Talking to a wall… A prat… Whichever you prefer to be called is fine with me."

Oliver huffed, his cheeks growing pink, "What's with you today?"

Merlin shot him a quick grin as he started the car. "Oh, the usual. You go have kinky sex with Anne and Ray doesn't let me sleep for most of the night. Makes a person a tad be snarky."

Oliver started to look guilty again, "I'm sorry about that, but after that psycho doctor was done telling me I was a spoiled brat I really need to get out of my head for a while."

Merlin nodded. After the incident, Oliver got pretty soft spoken. Which was scary for Oliver. Ray, believing it was a late reaction to the shooting when he was ten, started sending him to therapy. Merlin had a hard time with that. He didn't really think it was a bad idea that Oliver talk to someone about what was feeling. The problem was more in part Merlin wanting to be the person, and part the fact that Arthur in any form would never talk to someone he didn't know about what scares him.

Merlin hadn't said anything against it however and for a week Oliver wouldn't speak to him. Oliver had got it in his head that Merlin thought he was crazy. When Merlin had found that out he reminded Oliver that Merlin was over a thousand years old and if anyone was crazy than Merlin was.

"I'll call you next time." Oliver told him, still looking guilty.

"If you remember, you mean." Merlin teased.

That seemed to ease Oliver. The rest of the drive to Merlin's flat was driven in comfortable silence.


	16. Fifteen: Part Two

**Hi there! Long time no read! Sorry for the long wait, but I was dealing will scary writers block. I usually hid so it can't find me, but I wasn't fast enough this time. Anyway hope you like what I wrote this time! I knew all I needed was a little Gwaine! XD (Hint hint ;D)**

* * *

They spent hours on the couch the next day. Oliver had fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow the night before. Since it was a weekend neither of them felt the need to get dressed, so they just sat around watching tv.

Oliver was in the middle of flipping through channels at a speed to fast for him to actually be watching, when Merlin asked out of the blue, "If you had to choose, would you liked to be called Oliver or Arthur?"

Oliver muted the tv and turned to get a good look at his obviously crazy friend. Merlin looked bored. His book was sitting, forgotten, in his lap and he was busy staring at the ceiling. His hair was a mess. Every hair went off in a different direction. Like Oliver, Merlin was still in his pajamas. He was wearing sweats and no shirt. Oliver however, was in his boxers and one of Merlin's t-shirts. It was a little tight on him now, but Oliver still likes wearing them.

"What kind of stupid question his that?" Oliver gave him a look that said 'you are some kind of special idiot aren't you?'

Merlin laughed and finally moved his gaze of to Oliver. He laughed again at the look he was giving him. "Oh you know, the kind you ask when your bored out of your mind." Merlin answered.

Oliver rolled his eyes, "Why Arthur?" Merlin grinned like a crazy person and pointed at himself in response. Oliver rolled his eyes again. "Merlin what did we talk about you trying to be funny?"

Merlin's eyes gleamed at the familiar question. "Not to."

"That's right." Oliver mocked him.

"But really what name would you pick." Merlin's face turned serious. Like this stupid question was actually very important to him.

Oliver froze and stared into those too blue eyes. What's the right answer? Oliver flashed back to one of the worst nights of his life. _I'm sorry this is so hard, Arthur. _

'Why did Merlin call me Arthur?' Oliver asked himself for the hundredth time. It just didn't make sense.

Merlin and Arthur. Those names felt right somehow. Probably the fact that they are famous storybook characters. Are they though? Just stories?

'Merlin is over a thousand years old. Maybe he's the reason for the legend. Did he know a Arthur back then? Is that why he's been taking care of me all these years? Do I remind him of Arthur?' Oliver asked himself.

Just when Oliver was about to answer Arthur, because that's what Merlin had called him so long ago, the doorbell rang throughout the flat.

Merlin's eyes cut to the door like it would bite him. He stretched his magic passed his skin, so he could see who was on the other side of the door. It's been a couple of days since a bad day. They were bound to have one any day now, but no everything was where it was supposed to be.

What he did feel on the other side, though, made him grin. Oliver jumped at the sudden smile. Before he could ask, Merlin leaped off the couch, caught the book before it hit the floor, and sprinted to the door.

Merlin swung the door open and before he could even get a word in, lips covered his almost harshly. Oliver was left to watch in shocked horror as a rugged man in his thirties devoured Merlin's mouth. The man was slightly shorter than Merlin, but he didn't let that stop him from winding his ripped arms around Merlin's waist and grounding his hips into his own.

Oliver's first thought was that Merlin was really getting attacked. That he had opened his front door to some crazy person that goes around sucking everyones face off before even saying hello. That thought went out the window when Oliver noticed Merlin was kissing the man _**back**_! His arms were wrapped around the strange man's neck and they were both kissing like there was no tomorrow. As if Oliver wasn't even here.

Suddenly Oliver felt ignored. Merlin has never made him feel like that before. Oliver didn't like it. He coughed as loudly as he could to try to inform them he was in fact still sitting right here, but they didn't even flinch. He tried again. No change. "Merlin!" Oliver growled and finally, finally, Merlin pushed the man away to look back at Oliver with an annoyed look. It made Oliver feel two feet tall.

"What is it, my lord?" Merlin asked dumping every word with sarcasm.

Oliver glared at him, "Since when are you gay?!" Oliver inwardly cringed at the childish question.

"Well, I'm not supposed to talk about this outside of the regularly-scheduled organized meetings of all gays everywhere, but since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you a secret. I've been gay ever since when I was a little baby, a Cirque du Soleil clown snuck into my bedroom late at night and sprinkled rainbow glitter on my face." Merlin rolled his eyes.

The other man laughed, a deep sound, "You must be Oliver."

Oliver turned his glare onto the unknown man. His eyes looked him up and down. The man was pale. Like he put makeup on kind of pale. He had brown eyes and long silky dark brown hair. He had it styled so that it curved over one of his eyes. He had a thick beard too. As well as a body that proved to all that looked at him that he was no weakling. He was wearing black jeans and a blue skin fit t-shirt. Over his shirt he had on a black blazer. He pissed Oliver off.

"I must be." Oliver snapped at the jackass. He hadn't moved his hands off Merlin's waist.

Merlin rolled his eyes. "This is my close friend, Gareth."

Gareth grinned and waved at him, "Gareth was one of King Arthur's knights you know? It's nice to finally meet you Oliver."


End file.
